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diff --git a/old/fiofr10.txt b/old/fiofr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5eb2330 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fiofr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7268 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Firefly Of France, by Marion Polk Angellotti + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + + + + +THE FIREFLY OF FRANCE + +by Marion Polk Angellotti + + + + +TO +THE MEMORY OF +THE HEROIC GUYNEMER +"THE ACE OF THE ACES" + + + +PREPARER'S NOTE + + This text was prepared from a 1918 edition, published by The + Century Co., New York. + + + + + +THE FIREFLY OF FRANCE + + + +CHAPTER I + +ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS + +The restaurant of the Hotel St. Ives seems, as I look back on it, an +odd spot to have served as stage wings for a melodrama, pure and +simple. Yet a melodrama did begin there. No other word fits the case. +The inns of the Middle Ages, which, I believe, reeked with trap-doors +and cutthroats, pistols and poisoned daggers, offered nothing weirder +than my experience, with its first scene set beneath this roof. The +food there is superperfect, every luxury surrounds you, millionaires +and traveling princes are your fellow-guests. Still, sooner than pass +another night there, I would sleep airily in Central Park, and if I +had a friend seeking New York quarters, I would guide him toward some +other place. + +It was pure chance that sent me to the St. Ives for the night before +my steamer sailed. Closing the doors of my apartment the previous week +and bidding good-bye to the servants who maintained me there in +bachelor state and comfort, I had accompanied my friend Dick Forrest +on a farewell yacht cruise from which I returned to find the first two +hotels of my seeking packed from cellar to roof. But the third had a +free room, and I took it without the ghost of a presentiment. What +would or would not have happened if I had not taken it is a thing I +like to speculate on. + +To begin with, I should in due course have joined an ambulance section +somewhere in France. I should not have gone hobbling on crutches for a +painful three months or more. I should not have in my possession four +shell fragments, carefully extracted by a French surgeon from my +fortunately hard head. Nor should I have lived through the dreadful +moment when that British officer at Gibraltar held up those papers, +neatly folded and sealed and bound with bright, inappropriately +cheerful red tape, and with an icy eye demanded an explanation beyond +human power to afford. + +All this would have been spared me. But, on the other hand, I could +not now look back to that dinner on the Turin-Paris /rapide/. I should +never have seen that little, ruined French village, with guns booming +in the distance and the nearer sound of water running through tall +reeds and over green stones and between great mossy trees. Indeed, my +life would now be, comparatively speaking, a cheerless desert, because +I should never have met the most beautiful-- Well, all clouds have +silver linings; some have golden ones with rainbow edges. No; I am not +sorry I stopped at the St. Ives; not in the least! + +At any rate, there I was at eight o'clock of a Wednesday evening in a +restaurant full of the usual lights and buzz and glitter, among women +in soft-hued gowns, and men in their hideous substitute for the same. +Across the table sat my one-time guardian, dear old Peter Dunstan,-- +Dunny to me since the night when I first came to him, a very tearful, +lonesome, small boy whose loneliness went away forever with his +welcoming hug,--just arrived from home in Washington to eat a farewell +dinner with me and to impress upon me for the hundredth time that I +had better not go. + +"It's a wild-goose chase," he snapped, attacking his entree savagely. +Heaven knows it was to prove so, even wilder than his dreams could +paint; but if there were geese in it, myself included, there was also +to be a swan. + +"You don't really mean that, Dunny," I said firmly, continuing my +dinner. It was a good dinner; we had consulted over each item from +cocktails to liqueurs, and we are both distinctly fussy about food. + +"I do mean it!" insisted my guardian. Dunny has the biggest heart in +the world, with a cayenne layer over it, and this layer is always +thickest when I am bound for distant parts. "I mean every word of it, +I tell you, Dev." Dev, like Dunny, is a misnomer; my name is Devereux +--Devereux Bayne. "Don't you risk your bones enough with the +confounded games you play? What's the use of hunting shells and +shrapnel like a hero in a movie reel? We're not in this war yet, +though we soon will be, praise the Lord! And till we are, I believe in +neutrality--upon my soul I do." + +"Here's news, then!" I exclaimed. "I never heard of it before. Well, +your new life begins too late, Dunny. You brought me up the other way. +The modern system, you know, makes the parent or guardian responsible +for the child. So thank yourself for my unneutral nature and for the +war medals I'm going to win!" + +Muttering something about impertinence, he veered to another tack. + +"If you must do it," he croaked, "why sail for Naples instead of for +Bordeaux? The Mediterranean is full of those pirate fellows. You read +the papers--the headlines anyway; you know it as well as I. It's +suicide, no less! Those Huns sank the /San Pietro/ last week. I say, +young man, are you listening? Do you hear what I'm telling you?" + +It was true that my gaze had wandered near the close of his harangue. +I like to look at my guardian; the fine old chap, with his height and +straightness, his bright blue eyes and proud silver head, is a sight +for sore eyes, as they say. But just then I had glimpsed something +that was even better worth seeing. I am not impressionable, but I must +confess that I was impressed by this girl. + +She sat far down the room from me. Only her back was visible and a +somewhat blurred side-view reflected in the mirror on the wall. Even +so much was, however, more than welcome, including as it did a smooth +white neck, a small shell-like ear, and a mass of warm, crinkly, red- +brown hair. She wore a rose-colored gown, I noticed, cut low, with a +string of pearls; and her sole escort was a staid, elderly, precise +being, rather of the trusted family-lawyer type. + +"I haven't missed a word, Dunny," I assured my vis-a-vis. "I was just +wondering if Huns and pirates had quite a neutral sound. You know I +have to go via Rome to spend a week with Jack Herriott. He has been +pestering me for a good two years--ever since he's been secretary +there." + +Grumbling unintelligible things, my guardian sampled his Chablis; and +I, crumbling bread, lazily wishing I could get a front view of the +girl in rose-color, filled the pause by rambling on. + +"Duty calls me," I declared. "You see, I was born in France. Shabby +treatment on my parents' part I've always thought it; if they had +hurried home before the event I might have been President and declared +war here instead of hunting one across the seas. In that case, Dunny, +I should have heeded your plea and stayed; but since I'm ineligible +for chief executive, why linger on this side?" + +He scowled blackly. + +"I'll tell you what it is, my boy," he accused, with lifted +forefinger. "You like to pose--that's what is the matter with you! You +like to act stolid, matter-of-fact, correct; you want to sit in your +ambulance and smoke cigarettes indifferently and raise your eyebrows +superciliously when shrapnel bursts round. And it's all very well now; +it looks picturesque; it looks good form, very. But how old are you, +eh, Dev? Twenty-eight is it? Twenty-nine?" + +"You should know--none better--that I am thirty," I responded. +"Haven't you remembered each anniversary since I was five, beginning +with a hobby-horse and working up through knives and rifles and ponies +to the latest thing in cars?" + +Dunny lowered his accusing finger and tapped it on the cloth. + +"Thirty," he repeated fatefully. "All right, Dev. Strong and fit as an +ox, and a crack polo-player and a fair shot and boxer and not bad with +boats and cars and horses and pretty well off, too. So when you look +bored, it's picturesque; but wait! Wait ten years, till you take on +flesh, and the doctor puts you on diet, and you stop hunting chances +to kill yourself, but play golf like me. Then, my boy, when you look +stolid you won't be romantic. You'll be stodgy, my boy. That's what +you'll be!" + +Of all words in the dictionary there is surely none worse than this +one. The suggestions of stodginess are appalling, including, even at +best, hints of overweight, general uninterestingness, and a +disposition to sit at home in smoking-jacket and slippers after one's +evening meal. As my guardian suggested, my first youth was over. I +held up both my hands in token that I asked for grace. + +"/Kamerad/!" I begged pathetically. "Come, Dunny, let's be sociable. +After all, you know, it's my last evening; and if you call me such +names, you will be sorry when I am gone. By the way, speaking of Huns +--it was you, the neutral, who mentioned them,--does it strike you +there are quite a few of them on the staff of this hotel? I hope they +won't poison me. Look at the head waiter, look at half the waiters +round, and see that blond-haired, blue-eyed menial. Do you think he +saw his first daylight in these United States?" + +The menial in question was a uniformed bellboy winding in and out +among tables and paging some elusive guest. As he approached, his +chant grew plainer. + +"Mr. Bayne," he was droning. "Room four hundred and three." + +I raised a hand in summons, and he paused beside my seat. + +"Telephone call for you, sir," he informed me. + +With a word to my guardian, I pushed my chair back and crossed the +room. But at the door I found my path barred by the /maitre d'hotel/, +who, at the sight of my progress, had sprung forward, like an arrow +from a bow. + +"Excuse me, sir. You're not leaving, are you?" The man was actually +breathing hard. Deferential as his bearing was, I saw no cause for the +inquiry, and with some amusement and more annoyance, I wondered if he +suspected me of slipping out to evade my bill. + +"No," I said, staring him up and down; "I'm not!" I passed down the +hall to the entrance of the telephone booths. Glancing back, I could +see him still standing there gazing after me; his face, I thought, +wore a relieved expression as he saw whither I was bound. + +The queer incident left my mind as I secluded myself, got my +connection, and heard across the wire the indignant accents of Dick +Forrest, my former college chum. Upon leaving his yacht that morning, +I had promised him a certain power of attorney--Dick is a lawyer and +is called a good one, though I can never quite credit it--and he now +demanded in unjudicial heat why it had not been sent round. + +"Good heavens, man," I cut in remorsefully, "I forgot it! The thing is +in my room now. Where are you? That's all right. You'll have it by +messenger within ten minutes." Hastily rehooking the receiver, I +bolted from my booth. + +In the restaurant door against a background of paneled walls the +/maitre d'hotel/ still stood, as if watching for my return. I sprang +into an elevator just about to start its ascent, and saw his mouth +fall open and his feet bring him several quick steps forward. + +"The man is crazy," I told myself with conviction as I shot up four +stories in as many seconds and was deposited in my hall. + +There was no one at the desk where the floor clerk usually kept vigil, +gossiping affably with such employees as passed. The place seemed +deserted; no doubt all the guests were downstairs. Treading lightly on +the thick carpet, I went down the hall to Room four hundred and three, +and found the door ajar and a light visible inside. + +My bed, I supposed, was being turned down. I swung the door open, and +halted in my tracks. With his back to me, bent over a wide-open trunk +that I had left locked, was a man. + +Stepping inside, I closed the door quietly, meanwhile scrutinizing my +unconscious visitor from head to foot. He wore no hotel insignia--was +neither porter, waiter, nor valet. + +"Well, how about it? Anything there suit you?" I inquired affably, +with my back against the door. + +Exclaiming gutturally, he whisked about and faced me where I stood +quite prepared for a rough-and-tumble. Instead of a typical +housebreaker of fiction, I saw a pale, rabbit-like, decent-appearing +little soul. He was neatly dressed; he seemed unarmed save for a great +ring of assorted keys; and his manner was as propitiatory and mild- +eyed as that of any mouse. There must be some mistake. He was some +sober mechanic, not a robber. But on the other hand, he looked ready +to faint with fright. + +"/Mein Gott/!" he murmured in a sort of fishlike gasp. + +This illuminating remark was my first clue. + +"Ah! /Mein Herr/ is German?" I inquired, not stirring from my place. + +The demand wrought an instant change in him--he drew himself up, +perhaps to five feet five. + +"Vat you got against the Germans?" he asked me, almost with menace. It +was the voice of a fanatic intoning "Die Wacht am Rhein"--of a zealot +speaking for the whole embattled /Vaterland/. + +The situation was becoming farcical. + +"Nothing in the world, I assure you," I replied. "They are a simple, +kindly people. They are musical. They have given the world Schiller, +Goethe, the famous /Kultur/, and a new conception of the possibilities +of war. But I think they should have kept out of Belgium, and I feel +the same way about my room--and don't you try to pull a pistol or I +may feel more strongly still." + +"I ain't got no pistol, /nein/," declared my visitor, sulkily. His +resentment had already left him; he had shrunk back to five feet +three. + +"Well, I have, but I'll worry along without it," I remarked, with a +glance at the nearest bag. As targets, I don't regard my fellow- +creatures with great enthusiasm and, moreover, I could easily have +made two of this mousy champion of a warlike race. Illogically, I was +feeling that to bully him was sheer brutality. Besides this, my dinner +was not being improved by the delay. + +"Look here," I said amiably, "I can't see that you've taken anything. +Speak up lively now; I'll give you just one chance. If you care to +tell me how you got through a locked door and what you were after, +I'll let you go. I'm off to the firing line, and it may bring me +luck!" + +Hope glimmered in his eyes. In broken English, with a childlike +ingenuousness of demeanor, he informed me that he was a first-class +locksmith--first-glass he called it--who had been sent by the +management to open a reluctant trunk. He had entered my room, I was +led to infer, by a mistake. + +"I go now, /ja/?" he concluded, as postscript to the likely tale. + +"The devil you do! Do you take me for an utter fool?" I asked, +excusably nettled, and stepping to the telephone, I took the receiver +from its hook. + +"Give me the manager's office, please," I requested, watching my +visitor. "Is this the manager? This is Mr. Bayne speaking, Room four +hundred and three. I've found a man investigating my trunk--a +foreigner, a German." An exclamation from the manager, and from the +listening telephone-girl a shriek! "Yes; I have him. Yes; of course I +can hold him. Send up your house detective and be quick! My dinner is +spoiling--" + +The receiver dropped from my hand and clattered against the wall. The +little German, suddenly galvanized, had leaped away from the trunk, +not toward me and the door beyond me, but toward the electric switch. +His fingers found and turned it, plunging the room into the darkness +of the grave. Taken unaware, I barred his path to the hall, only to +hear him fling up the window across the room. Against the faint square +of light thus revealed, I saw him hang poised a moment. Then with a +desperate noise, a moan of mixed resolve and terror, he disappeared. + + + +CHAPTER II + +DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES + +Standing there staring after him, I felt like a murderer of the +deepest dye. It is one thing to hand over to the police their natural +prey, a thief taken red-handed, but quite another, and a much more +harrowing one, to have him slip through your fingers, precipitate +himself into mid-air, and drop four stories to the pavement, +scattering his brains far and wide. There was not a vestige of hope +for the poor wretch. + +Unnerved, I groped to the window and peered downward for his remains. +My first glance proved my regrets to be superfluous. Beneath my +window, which, owing to the crowded condition of the hotel, opened on +a side street, a fire-escape descended jaggedly; and upon it, just out +of arm's reach, my recent guest clung and wobbled, struggling with an +attack of natural vertigo before proceeding toward the earth. + +By this time my rage was such that I would have followed that little +thief almost anywhere. It was not the dizziness of the yawning void +that stayed me. I should have climbed the Matterhorn with all +cheerfulness to catch him at the top. But sundry visions of the figure +I would cut, the crowd that might gather, and the probable ragging in +the morning papers, were too much for me, and I sorrowfully admitted +that the game was not worth the price. + +The little man's nerves, meanwhile, seemed to be steadying. Feeling +each step, he began cautiously to work his way down. To my wrath he +even looked up at me and indulged in a grimace--but his triumph was +ill-timed, for at that very instant I beheld, strolling along the +street below, humming and swinging his night-stick, as leisurely, +complacent, and stalwart a representative of the law as one could wish +to see. + +"Hi, there! Officer!" I shouted lustily. My hail, if not my words, +reached him; he glanced up, saw the figure on the ladder, and was +seized instantaneously with the spirit of the chase. + +Yelling something reassuring, the gist of which escaped me, he +constituted himself a reception committee of one and started for the +ladder's foot. But our doughty Teuton was a resourceful person. Roused +to the urgency of his plight, he looked wildly up at me, down at the +officer, and, hastily pushing up the nearest window, hoisted himself +across its sill, and again took refuge in the St. Ives Hotel. + +With a bellow of rage, the policeman dashed toward the porte-cochere, +while I ducked back into the room, rapidly revolving my chances of +cutting off the man's retreat below. If the system of numbering was +the same on every floor, my thief must, of course, emerge from Room +303. But this similarity was problematical, and to invade apartments +at random, disturbing women at their opera toilets and maybe even +waking babies, was too desperate a shift to try. + +It reminded me to wait with what patience I could summon for the house +detective. And where was he, by the way? I had turned in my alarm a +good five minutes before. + +In an unenviable humor I stumbled across the room, tripping and +barking my shins over various malignant hassocks, tables, and chairs. +Finding the switch at last, I flooded the room with light, and saw +myself in the mirror, with tie and coat askew. + +"Now," I muttered, straightening them viciously, "we'll see what he +took away." But the trunk seemed undisturbed when I examined it, and +my various bags and suitcases were securely locked. I had found +Forrest's power of attorney and was storing it in my pocket when +voices rose outside. + +A group of four was approaching, comprised of a spruce, dress-coated +manager; a short thick-set, broad-faced man who was doubtless the +long-overdue detective; a professional-appearing gentleman with a +black bag, obviously the house-physician; and the policeman that I had +summoned from his stroll below. The latter, in an excited brogue, was +recounting his late vision of the thief, "hangin' between hivin and +earth, no less," while the detective scornfully accused him of having +been asleep or jingled, on the ground of my late telephone to the +effect that I was holding the man. + +The manager, as was natural, took the initiative, bustling past me +into my room and peering eagerly around. + +"I needn't say, Mr. Bayne," he orated fluently, "how sorry I am that +this has happened--especially beneath our roof. It is our first case, +I assure you, of anything so regrettable. If it gets into the papers +it won't do us any good. Now the important thing is to take the fellow +out by the rear without courting notice. Why, where is he?" he asked +hopefully. "Surely he isn't gone?" + +"Sure, and didn't I tell ye? 'Tis without eyes ye think me!" The +policeman was resentful, and so, to tell the truth, was I. The whole +maddening affair seemed bent on turning to farce at every angle; the +doctor, as a final straw, had just offered /sotto voce/ to mix me a +soothing draft! + +"Gone! Of course he's gone, man!" I exclaimed with some natural +temper. "Did you expect him to sit here waiting all this time? What on +earth have you been doing--reading the papers--playing bridge? A dozen +thieves could have escaped since I telephoned downstairs!" + +"But you said," he murmured, apparently dazed, "that you could hold +him." A tactless remark, which failed to assuage my wrath! + +"So I could," I responded savagely. "But I didn't expect him to turn +into a conjuring trick, which is what he did. He went out that window +head foremost, down the ladder, and into the room below. Let's be +after him--though we stand as much chance of catching him as we do of +finding the King of England!" and I turned toward the doorway, where +the manager, the doctor and the detective were massed. + +The manager put his hand upon my arm. I looked down at it with raised +eyebrows, and he took it away. + +"Excuse me, sir," he said, adopting a manner of appeal, "but if you'll +reflect for a moment you'll see how it is, I know. People don't care +for houses where burglars fly in and out of windows; it makes them +nervous; you wouldn't believe how easily a hotel can get a bad name +and lose its clientele. Besides, from what you tell me, the fellow +must be well away by this time. You'd do me a favor--a big one--by +dropping the matter here." + +"Well, I won't!" I snapped indignantly. "I'll see it through--or start +something still livelier. Are you coming down with me to investigate +the room beneath us or do you want me to ring up police headquarters +and find out why?" + +In the hall the policeman looked at me across the intervening heads +and dropped one slow, approving eyelid. "If the gintleman says so--" +he remarked in heavy tones fraught with meaning, and fixed a cold, +blue, appraising gaze on the detective, who thereupon yielded with +unexpectedly good grace. + +"Aw, what's eating you?" was his amiable demand. "Sure, we was going +right down there anyhow--soon's we found out how the land lay up +here." + +The five of us took the elevator to the lower floor. An unfriendly +atmosphere surrounded me. I was held a hotel wrecker without reason. +We found the corridor empty, the floor desk abandoned--a state of +things rather strikingly the duplicate of that reigning overhead--and +in due course paused before Room 303, where the manager, figuratively +speaking, washed his hands of the affair. + +"Here is the room, Mr. Bayne, for which you ask." If I would persist +in my nefarious course, added his tone. + +The detective, obeying the hypnotic eye of the policeman, knocked. +There was silence. The bluecoat, my one ally, was crouching for a +spring. Then light steps crossed the room, and the door was opened. +There stood a girl,--a most attractive girl, the girl that I had seen +downstairs. Straight and slender, spiritedly gracious in bearing, with +gray eyes questioning us from beneath lashes of crinkly black, she was +a radiant figure as she stood facing us, with a coat of bright-blue +velvet thrown over her rosy gown. + +"Beg pardon, miss," said the policeman, brightly, "this gintleman's +been robbed." + +As her eyebrows went up a fraction, I could have murdered him, for how +else could she read his statement save that I took her for the thief? + +"I am very sorry," I explained, bowing formally, "to disturb you. We +are hunting a thief who took French leave by my fire-escape. I must +have been mistaken--I thought that he dodged in again by this window. +You have not seen or heard anything of him, of course?" + +"No, I haven't. But then, I just this instant came up from dinner," +she replied. Her low, contralto tones, quite impersonal, were yet +delightful; I could have stood there talking burglars with her till +dawn. "Do you wish to come in and make sure that he is not in hiding?" +With a half smile for which I didn't blame her, she moved a step +aside. + +"Certainly not!" I said firmly, ignoring a nudge from the policeman. +"He left before you came--there was ample time. It is not of the least +consequence, anyhow. Again I beg your pardon." As she inclined her +head, I bowed, and closed the door. + +"I trust Mr. Bayne, that you are satisfied at last." This was the St. +Ives manager, and I did not like his tone. + +"I am satisfied of several things," I retorted sharply, "but before I +share them with you, will you kindly tell me your name?" + +"My name is Ritter," he said with dignity. "I confess I fail to see +what bearing--" + +"Call it curiosity," I interrupted. "Doctor, favor me with yours." + +The doctor peered at me over his glasses, hesitated, and then revealed +his patronym. It was Swanburger, he informed me. + +"But, my dear sir, what on earth--" + +"Merely," said I, with conviction, "that this isn't an Allies' night. +It is /Deutschland uber Alles/; the stars are fighting for the Teuton +race. Now, let's hear how you were christened," I added, turning to +the house detective, who looked even less sunny than before if that +could be. + +"See here, whatcher giving us?" snarled that somewhat unpolished +worthy. "My name's Zeitfeld; but I was born in this country, don't you +forget it, same as you." + +"A great American personality," I remarked dreamily, "has declared +that in the hyphenate lies the chief menace to the United States. And +what's your name?" I asked the representative of law and order. "Is it +Schmidt?" + +"No, sir," he responded, grinning; "it's O'Reilly, sorr." + +"Thank heaven for that! You've saved my reason," I assured him as I +leaned against the wall and scanned the Germanic hordes. + +"Mr. Ritter," said I, addressing that gentleman coldly, "when I am +next in New York I don't think I shall stop with you. The atmosphere +here is too hectic; you answer calls for help too slowly--calls, at +least, in which a guest indiscreetly tells you that he has caught a +German thief. It looks extremely queer, gentlemen. And there are some +other points as well--" + +But there I paused. I lacked the necessary conviction. After all I was +the average citizen, with the average incredulity of the far-fetched, +the melodramatic, the absurd. To connect the head waiter's panic at my +departure with the episode in my room, to declare that the floor +clerks had been called from their posts for a set purpose, and the +halls deliberately cleared for the thief, were flights of fancy that +were beyond me. The more fool I! + +By the time I saw the last of the adventure I began that night--it was +all written in the nth power, and introduced in more or less important +roles the most charming girl in the world, the most spectacular hero +of France, the cleverest secret-service agent in the pay of the +fatherland, and I sometimes ruefully suspected, the biggest imbecile +of the United States in the person of myself--I knew better than to +call any idea impossible simply because it might sound wild. But at +the moment my education was in its initial stages, and turning with a +shrug from three scowling faces, I led my friendly bluecoat a little +aside. + +"I've no more time to-night to spend thief-catching, Officer," I told +him. I had just recalled my dinner, now utterly ruined, and Dunny, +probably at this instant cracking walnuts as fiercely as if each one +were the kaiser's head. "But I'm an amateur in these affairs, and you +are a master. Before I go, as man to man, what the dickens do you make +of this?" + +Flattered, he looked profound. + +"I'm thinking, sorr," he gave judgment, "ye had the rights of it. +Seein' as how th' thafe is German, ye'll not set eyes on him more--for +divil a wan here but's of that counthry, and they stick together +something fierce!" + +"Well," I admitted, "our thoughts run parallel. Here is something to +drink confusion to them all. And, O'Reilly, I am glad I'm going to +sail to-morrow. I'd rather live on a sea full of submarines than in +this hotel, wouldn't you?" + +Touching his forehead, he assented, and wished me good-night and a +good journey; part of his hope went unfulfilled, by the way. That +ocean voyage of mine was to take rank, in part at least, as a first- +class nightmare. The Central powers could scarcely have improved on it +by torpedoing us in mid-ocean or by speeding us upon our trip with a +cargo of clock-work bombs. + + + +CHAPTER III + +ON THE RE D'ITALIA + +The sailing of the /Re d'Italia/ was scheduled for 3 P.M. promptly, +but being well acquainted with the ways of steamers at most times, +above all in these piping times of war, it was not until an hour later +than I left the St. Ives, where the manager, by the way, did not +appear to bid me farewell. + +The thermometer had been falling, and the day was crisp and snappy, +with a light powdering of snow underfoot and a blue tang and sparkle +in the air. Dunny accompanied me in the taxicab, but was less +talkative than usual. Indeed, he spoke only two or three times between +the hotel and the pier. + +"I say, Dev," was his first contribution to the conversation, "d' you +remember it was at a dock that you and I first met? It was night, +blacker than Tophet, and raining, and you came ashore wet as a rag. +You were the lonesomest, chilliest, most forlorn little tike I ever +saw; but, by the eternal, you were trying not to cry!" + +"Lonesome? I rather think so!" I echoed with conviction. "Wynne and +his wife brought me over; he played poker all the way, and she read +novels in her berth. And I heard every one say that I was an orphan, +and it was very, very sad. Well, I was never lonely after that, +Dunny." My hand met his half-way. + +The next time that he broke silence was upon the ferry, when he urged +on me a fat wallet stuffed with plutocratic-looking notes. + +"In case anything should happen," ran his muttered explanation. I have +never needed Dunny's money,--his affection is another matter,--but he +can spare it, and this time I took it because I saw he wanted me to. + +As we approached the Jersey City piers, he seemed to shrink and grow +tired, to take on a good ten years beyond his hale and hearty age. +With every glance I stole at him a lump in my throat grew bigger, and +in the end, bending forward, I laid a hand on his knee. + +"Look here, Dunny," I demanded, not looking at him, "do you mean half +of what you were saying last evening--or the hundredth part? After +all, there'll be a chance to fight here before we're many months +older. If you just say the word, old fellow, I'll be with you +to-night--and hang the trip!" + +But Dunny, though he wrung my hand gratefully and choked and glared +out of the window, would hear of no such arrangement, repudiated it, +indeed, with scorn. + +"No, my boy," he declared. "I don't say it for a minute. I like your +going. I wouldn't give a tinker's dam for you, whatever that is, if +you didn't want to do something for those fellows over there. I won't +even say to be careful, for you can't if you do your duty--only, don't +you be too all-fired foolhardy, even for war medals, Dev." + +"Oh, I was born to be hanged, not shot," I assured him, almost +prophetically. "I'll take care of myself, and I'll write you now and +then--" + +"No, you won't!" he snorted, with a skepticism amply justified by the +past. "And if you did, I shouldn't answer; I hate letters, always did. +But you cable me once a fortnight to let me know you're living--and +send an extra cable if you want anything on earth!" + +The taxi, which had been crawling, came to a final halt, and a hungry +horde, falling on my impedimenta, lowered them from the driver's seat. + +"No, I'll not come on board, Dev," said my guardian. "I--I couldn't +stand it. Good-by, my dear boy." + +We clasped hands again; then I felt his arm resting on my shoulder, +and flung both of mine about him in an old-time, boyish hug. + +"/Au revoir/, Dunny. Back next year," I shouted cheerily as the driver +threw in his clutch and the car glided on its way. + +Preceded by various porters, I threaded my way at a snail's pace +through the dense crowd of waiting passengers, swarthy-faced sons of +Italy, apparently bound for the steerage. The great gray bulk of the +/Re d'Italia/ loomed before me, floating proudly at her stern the +green, white, and red flag blazoned with the Savoyard shield. + +"Wave while they let you," I apostrophized it, saluting. "When we get +outside the three-mile limit and stop courting notice, you'll not fly +long." + +At the gang-plank I was halted, and I produced my passport and +exhibited the /vise/ of his excellency, the Italian consul-general in +New York. I strolled aboard, was assigned to Cabin D, and informed by +my steward that there were in all but five first-class passengers, a +piece of news that left me calm. Stodgy I may be,--it was odd how that +term of Dunny's rankled,--but I confess that I find chance traveling +acquaintances boring and avoid them when I can. Unlike most of my +countrymen, I suppose I am not gregarious, though I dine and week-end +punctiliously, send flowers and leave cards at decorous intervals, and +know people all the way from New York to Tokio. + +My carefully limited baggage looked lonely in my cabin; I missed the +paraphernalia with which one usually begins a trip. Also, as I +rummaged through two bags to find the cap I wanted, I longed for +Peters, my faithful man, who could be backed to produce any desired +thing at a moment's notice. When bound for Flanders or the Vosges, +however, one must be a Spartan. I found what I sought at last and went +on deck. + +The scene, though cheerful, was not lacking in wartime features: A row +of life-boats hung invitingly ready; a gun, highly dramatic in +appearance, was mounted astern, with every air of meaning business +should the kaiser meddle with us en route. Down below, the Italians, +talking, gesticulating, showing their white teeth in flashing, boyish +smiles, were being herded docilely on board, while at intervals one or +another of the few promenade-deck passengers appeared. + +The first of these, a shrewd-faced, nervous little man, borrowed an +unneeded match of me and remarked that it was cold weather for spring. +The next, a good-looking young foreigner,--a reservist, I surmised, +recalled to the Italian colors in this hour of his country's need,-- +rather harrowed my feelings by coming on board with a family party, +gray-haired father, anxious mother, slim bride-like wife, and two +brothers or cousins, all making pathetic pretense at good cheer. Soon +after came a third man, dark, quiet, watchful-looking, and personable +enough, although his shoes were a little too gleamingly polished, his +watch and chain a little too luminously golden, the color scheme of +his hose and tie selected with almost too much care. + +"This," I reflected resignedly, "is going to be a ghastly trip. By +Jove, here comes another! Now where have I seen her before?" + +The new arrival, as indicated by the pronoun, was a woman; though why +one should tempt Providence by traveling on this route at this +juncture, I found it hard to guess. Standing with her back to me, +enveloped in a coat of sealskin with a broad collar of darker fur, +well gloved, smartly shod, crowned by a fur hat with a gold cockade, +she made a delightful picture as she rummaged in a bag which reposed +upon a steamer-chair, and which, thus opened, revealed a profusion of +gold mountings, bottles and brushes, hand-chased and initialed in an +opulent way. + +There was a haunting familiarity about her. She teased my memory as I +strolled up the deck. Then, snapping the bag shut, she turned and +straightened, and I recognized the girl to whose door my thief-chase +had led me at the St. Ives. + +It seemed rather a coincidence my meeting her again. + +"I shouldn't mind talking to you on this trip," I reflected, +mollified. "The mischief of it is you'll notice me about as much as +you notice the ship's stokers. You're not the sort to scrape +acquaintance, or else I miss my shot!" + +I did not miss it. So much was instantly proved. As I passed her, on +the mere chance that she might elect to acknowledge our encounter, I +let my gaze impersonally meet hers. She started slightly. Evidently +she remembered. But she turned toward the nearest door without a bow. + +The dark, too-well-groomed man was emerging as she advanced. Instead +of moving back, he blocked her path, looking--was it appraisingly, +expectantly?--into her eyes. There was a pause while she waited rather +haughtily for passage; then he effaced himself, and she disappeared. + +Striking a match viciously, I lit a cigarette and strolled forward. +Either the fellow had fancied that he knew her or he had behaved in a +confoundedly impertinent way. The latter hypothesis seemed, on the +whole, the more likely, and I felt a lively desire to drop him over +the rail. + +"But I don't know what a girl of your looks expects, I'm sure," I +grumbled, "setting off on your travels with no chaperon and no +companion and no maid! Where are your father and mother? Where are +your brothers? Where's the old friend of the family who dined with you +last night? If chaps who have no right to walk the same earth with you +get insolent, who is going to teach them their place, and who is going +to take care of you if a U-boat pops out of the sea? Oh, well, never +mind. It isn't any of my business. But just the same if you need my +services, I think I'll tackle the job." + +Time was passing; night had fallen. Consulting my watch, I found that +it was seven o'clock. I had been aboard more than two hours. An +afternoon sailing, quotha! At this rate we would be lucky if we got +off by dawn. + +The dinner gong, a welcome diversion, summoned us below to lights and +warmth. At one table the young Italian entertained his relatives, and +at another the captain, a short, swart-faced, taciturn being, had +grouped his officers and various officials of the steamship company at +a farewell feast. The little sharp-faced passenger was throned +elsewhere in lonely splendor, but when I selected a fourth table, he +jumped up, crossed over and installed himself as my vis-a-vis. Passing +me the salt, which I did not require, he supplied with it some +personal data of which I felt no greater need. His name was McGuntrie, +he announced; he was sales agent for the famous Phillipson Rifles and +was being dispatched to secure a gigantic contract on the other side. + +"And if inside six months you don't see three hundred thousand Italian +soldiers carrying Phillipson's best," he informed me, "I'll take a +back seat and let young Jim Furman, who thinks I'm a has-been and he's +the one white hope, begin to draw my pay. You can't beat those rifles. +When the boys get to carrying them, old Francis Joseph's ghost'll +weep. Pity, ain't it, we didn't get on board by noon?" he digressed +sociably. "I could've found something to do ashore the four hours I've +been twiddling my thumbs here, and I guess you could too. Hardest, +though, on our friends the newspaper boys. Did you know they were out +there waiting to take a flashlight film? Fact. They do it nowadays +every time a big liner leaves. Then if we sink, all they have to do is +run it, with 'Doomed Ship Leaving New York Harbor' underneath." + +To his shocked surprise I laughed at the information. My appetite was +unimpaired as I pursued my meal. Trains in which others ride may +telescope and steamers may take one's acquaintances to watery graves, +but to normal people the chance of any catastrophe overtaking them +personally must always seem gratifyingly far-fetched and vague. + +"Think it's funny, do you?" my new friend reproached me. "Well, I +don't; and neither did the folks who had cabins taken and who threw +them up last week when they heard how the /San Pietro/ went down on +this same route. We're five plumb idiots--that's what we are--five +crazy lunatics! I'd never have come a step, not with wild horses +dragging me if it hadn't been for Jim Furman being pretty near +popeyed, looking for a chance to cut me out and sail. We've got +fifteen hundred reservists downstairs, and a cargo of contraband. What +do you know about that as a prize for a submarine?" + +"Well," I said vaingloriously. "I can swim." + +My eyes were wandering, for the girl in the fur coat had entered, with +the dark, watchful-eyed man--was it pure coincidence?--close behind. +The steward ushered her to a table; the man followed at her heels. I +dare say I glared. I know my muscles stiffened. The fellow was going +to speak to her. What in blazes did he mean by stalking her in this +way? + +"Excuse me," he was saying, "but haven't we met before?" + +The girl straightened into rigidness, looking him over. Her manner was +haughty, her ruddy head poised stiffly, as she answered in a cold +tone: + +"No." + +He was watching her keenly. + +"My name's John Van Blarcom," he persisted. + +Again she gave him that sweeping glance. + +"You are mistaken," she said indifferently. "I have not seen you +before." + +He nodded curtly. + +"My mistake," he admitted. "I thought I knew you," and turning from +her, he sat down at the one table still unoccupied. + +"So his name's Van Blarcom," whispered my ubiquitous neighbor. "And +the Italian chap over there is Pietro Ricci. The steward told me so. +And the captain's name is Cecchi; get it? And I know your name, too, +Mr. Bayne," he added with a grin. "The steward didn't know what was +taking you over, but I guess I've got your number all right. Say, +ain't you a flying man or else one of the American-Ambulance boys?" + +I mustered the feeble parry that I had stopped being a boy of any sort +some time ago. Then lest he wring from me my age, birthplace, and the +amount of my income tax, I made an end of my meal. + +On deck again I wondered at my irritation, my sense of restlessness. +The little salesman was not responsible, though he had fretted me like +a buzzing fly. It was rather that I had taken an intense dislike to +the man calling himself Van Blarcom; that the girl, despite her +haughtiness, had somehow given me an impression of uneasiness--of fear +almost--as she saw him approach and heard him speak; and above all, +that I should have liked to flay alive the person or persons who had +let her sail unaccompanied for a zone which at this moment was the +danger point of the seas. + +My matter-of-fact, conservatively ordered life had been given a crazy +twist at the St. Ives. As an aftermath of that episode I was probably +scenting mysteries where there were none. Nevertheless, I wondered-- +though I called myself a fool for it--if any more queer things would +happen before this ship on which we five bold voyagers were confined +should reach the other side. + +They did. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"EXTRA" + +Toward nine o'clock to my relief it became obvious that the /Re +d'Italia/ was really going to sail at last. The first and second +whistles, sounding raucously, sent the company officials and the +family of the young officer of reserves ashore. The plank was lowered; +between the ship and the looming pier a thread of black water appeared +and grew; a flash and an explosion indicated that the possibly doomed +liner had been filmed according to schedule. "/Evviva l'Italia/!" +yelled the returning braves in the steerage--a very decent set of +fellows, it struck me, to leave so cheerfully their vocations of +teamster, waiter, fruit vender, and the like, and go, unforced, to +wear the gray-green coats of Italy, the short feathers of the mountain +climbers, the bersagliere's bunch of plumes, and to stand against +their hereditary foes the Austrians, up in the snowy Alps. + +The details of departure were an old tale to me. As we swung farther +and farther out, I turned to a newspaper, a twentieth extra probably, +which I had heard a newsboy crying along the dock a little earlier, +and had bribed a steward to secure. Moon and stars were lacking +to-night, but the deck lights were good reading-lamps. Moving up the +rail to one of them, I investigated the world's affairs. + +From the first sheet the usual staring headlines leaped at me. There +were the inevitable peace rumor, the double denial, the eternal +bulletin of a trench taken here, a hill recaptured there. A +sensational rumor was exploited to the effect that Franz von Blenheim, +one of the star secret agents of the German Empire, was at present +incognito at Washington, having spent the past month in putting his +finger in the Mexican pie much to our disadvantage. On the last column +of the page was the photograph of a distinguished-looking young man in +uniform, with an announcement that promised some interest, I thought. + +"War Scandal Bursts in France," "Scion of Oldest Noblesse Implicated," +"Duke Mysteriously Missing," I read in the diminishing degrees of the +scare-head type. Then came the picture, with a mien attractively +debonair, a pleasantly smiling mouth, and a sympathetic pair of eyes, +and in due course, the tale. I clutched at the flapping ends of the +paper and read on: + + + Of all the scandals to which the present war has given birth, none + has stirred France more profoundly than that implicating Jean- + Herve-Marie-Olivier, Count of Druyes, Marquis of Beuil and + Santenay, and Duke of Raincy-la-Tour. This young nobleman, head of + a family that has played its part in French history since the days + of the Northmen and the crusaders, bears in his veins the bluest + blood of the old regime, and numbers among his ancestors no fewer + than seven marshals and five constables of France. + + A noted figure not only by his birth, his wealth, and his various + historic chateaux, but also by his sporting proclivities, his + daring automobile racing, his marvelous fencing, and his + spectacular hunting trips, the Duke of Raincy-la-Tour has long + been in addition an amateur aviator of considerable fame, and it + was to the French Flying Corps that he was attached when + hostilities began. Here he distinguished himself from the first by + his coolness, his extraordinary resource, and his utter contempt + for danger, and became one of the idols of the French army and a + proverb for success and audacity, besides attaining to the rank of + lieutenant, gaining, after his famous night flight across + Mulhausen for bomb-dropping purposes, the affectionate sobriquet + of the Firefly of France, and winning in rapid succession the + military Medal, the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, and the Cross + of War with palms. + + According to rumor, the duke was lately intrusted with a mission + of exceptional peril, involving a flight into hostile territory + and the capture of certain photographs of defenses much needed for + the plans of the supreme command. With his wonted brilliancy, he + is said to have accomplished the errand and to have returned in + safety as far as the French lines. Here, however, we enter the + realm of conjecture. The duke has disappeared; the plans he bore + have never reached the generalissimo; and rumor persistently + declares that at some point upon his return journey he was + intercepted by German agents and induced by bribes or coercion to + deliver up his spoils. By one version he was later captured and + summarily executed by the French; while his friends, denying this, + pin their hopes to his death at the hands of the enemy, as + offering the best outcome of the unsavory event. + + The family of the Duke of Raincy-la-Tour has been noted in the + past for its pronouncedly Royalist tendencies, the attitude of his + father and grandfather toward the republic having been hostile in + the extreme. It is believed that this fact may have its + significance in the present episode. The occurrence is of special + interest to the United States in view of the recent (Continued on + Page Three) + + +Before proceeding, I glanced at the pictured face. The Duke of Raincy- +la-tour looked back at me with cool, clear eyes, smiling half aloofly, +a little scornfully, as in the presence of danger the true Frenchman +is apt to smile. + +"I don't think, Jean-Herve-Marie-Olivier," I reflected, "that you ever +talked to the Germans except with bombs. They probably got you, poor +chap, and you're lying buried somewhere while the gossips make a +holiday of the fact that you don't come home. Confound 'current +rumors' anyhow, and yellow papers too!" + +"I beg your pardon," said a low contralto voice. + +The girl in the fur coat was standing at my shoulder. I turned, +lifting my cap, wondering what under heaven she could want. I was not +much pleased to tell the truth; a goddess shouldn't step from her +pedestal to chat with strangers. Then suddenly I recognized a distinct +oddness in her air. + +"Would you lend me your paper," she was asking, "for just a moment? I +haven't seen one since morning; the evening editions were not out when +I came on board." + +Her manner was proud, spirited, gracious; she even smiled; but she was +frightened. I could read it in her slight pallor, in the quickening of +her breath. + +My extra! What was there in the day's news that could upset her? I was +nonplussed, but of course I at once extended the sheet. + +"Certainly!" I replied politely. "Pray keep it." Lifting my cap a +second time, I turned to go. + +Her fingers touched my arm. + +"Wait! Please wait!" she was urging. There was a half-imperious, half- +appealing note in her hushed voice. + +I stared. + +"I'm afraid," I said blankly, "that I don't quite--" + +"Some one may suspect. Some one may come," urged this most astonishing +young woman. "Don't you see that--that I'm trusting you to help me? +Won't you stay?" + +Wondering if I by any chance looked as stunned as I felt, I bowed +formally, faced about, and waited, both arms on the rail. My ideas as +to my companion had been revolutionized in sixty seconds. I had +believed her a girl with whom I might have grown up, a girl whose +brother and cousins I had probably known at college, a girl that I +might have met at a friend's dinner or at the opera or on a country- +club porch if I had had my luck with me. Now what was I to think her-- +an escaped lunatic or something more accountable and therefore worse? +If I detest anything, it is the unconventional, the stagy, the +mysterious. Setting my teeth, I resolved to wait until she concluded +her researches; after that, politely but firmly, I would depart. + +And then, beside me, the paper rustled. I heard a little gasp, a tiny +low-drawn sigh. Stealing a glance down, I saw the girl's face shining +whitely in the deck light. Her black lashes fringed her cheeks as her +head bent backward; her eyes were as dark as the water we were +slipping through. I had no idea of speaking, and yet I did speak. + +"I am afraid," I heard myself saying, "that you have had bad news." + +She was struggling for self-control, but her voice wavered. + +"Yes," she agreed; "I am afraid I have." + +"If there is anything I can do--" I was correct, but reluctant. How I +would bless her if she would go away! + +But obviously she did not intend to. Quite the contrary! + +"There is something," she was murmuring, "that would help me very +much." + +There, I had done it! I was an ass of the common or garden variety, +who first resolved to keep out of a queer business and then, because a +girl looked bothered, plunged into it up to my ears. I succeeded in +hiding my feelings, in looking wooden. + +"Please tell me," I responded, "what it is." + +"But--I can't explain it." Her gloved hands tightened on the railing. +"And if I ask without explaining, it will seem so--so strange." + +"Doubtless," I reflected grimly. But I had to see the thing through +now. "That doesn't matter at all," I assured her civilly through +clenched teeth. + +She came closer--so close that her fur coat brushed me, and her breath +touched my cheek; her eyes, like gray stars now that they were less +anxious, went to my head a little, I suppose. Oh, yes, she was lovely. +Of course that was a factor. If she had been past her first youth and +skimpy as to hair, and dowdy, I don't pretend that I should ever have +mixed myself up in the preposterous coil. + +"This paper," she whispered, holding out the sheet, "has something in +it. It is not about me; it is not even true. But if it stays aboard +the ship,--if some one sees it, it may make trouble. Oh, you see how +it sounds; I knew you would think me mad!" + +"Not in the least." What an absurd rigmarole she was uttering! Yet +such was the spell of her eyes, her voice, her nearness that I merely +felt like saying, "Tell me some more." + +"I can't destroy it myself," she went on anxiously. "He--they--mustn't +see me do anything that might lead them to--to guess. But no one will +think of you, nobody will be watching you; so by and by will you +weight the paper with something heavy and drop it across the rail?" + +My head was whirling, but a graven image might have envied me my +impassivity. I bowed. "I shall be delighted," I announced banally, "to +do as you say." + +Her face flushed to a warm wild-rose tint as she heard me promise it, +and her red lips, parting, took on a tremulous smile. + +"Thank you," she murmured in frank gratitude. "I thought--I knew you +would help me!" Then she was gone. + +My trance broken I woke to hear myself softly swearing. I consigned +myself to my proper home, an asylum; I wished the girl at Timbuktu, +Kamchatka, Land's End--anywhere except on this ship. As I had told the +agent of the Phillipson Rifles, I am no boy. One can scarcely knock +about the world for thirty years without gaining some of its wisdom; +and of all the appropriate truisms I spared myself not one. + +Resentfully I reminded myself that mysteries were suspicious, that +honest people seldom had need of secrecy, that idiots who, like me, +consented to act blindfold would probably repent their blindness in +sackcloth and ashes before long. But what use were these sage +reflections? I had given my word to her. I was in for the +consequences, however unpleasant they proved. + +Without further mental parley I went down to my cabin, where I routed +out from among my traps a bronze paper-weight as heavy as lead. +Wrapping the mysterious sheet about it, I brought the package back on +deck. There was not a soul in sight; it was a propitious hour. + +To right and to left the coast lights were slipping past, making +golden paths on the black water as our tug pulled us out to sea. The +reservists down below were singing "/Va fuori, o stranier/!" I dropped +my package overboard, watched it vanish, and turned to behold the +sphinx-like Van Blarcom, sprung up as if by magic, regarding me +placidly from the shelter of the smoking-room door. + + + +CHAPTER V + +MR. VAN BLARCOM. U. S. A. + +For a trip that had begun with such rich promise of the unusual, my +voyage on the /Re d'Italia/ proved a gratifying anticlimax during its +first few days. The weather was bad. We plowed forward monotonously, +flagless, running between dark-gray water and a lowering, leaden sky. +Screws throbbed, timbers creaked, and dishes crashed as the Gulf +Stream took us, and great waves reared themselves round us like +myriads of threatening Alps. + +After that first night the girl kept discreetly to her stateroom. I +was relieved; but I thought of her a good deal. I had little else to +do. Pacing a drunken deck and smoking, I wove unsatisfactory theories, +asking myself what was her need of secrecy, what the item she wanted +hidden, what the errand that had made her sail on the vessel a week +after the spectacular torpedoing of a sister-ship? Did she know this +Van Blarcom or did she merely dread any notice? And above all, who was +the man and had he been watching when I tossed that wretched extra +across the rail? + +I saw something of him, of course, as time went on. Naturally we four +bold spirits, the ubiquitous McGuntrie, Van Blarcom, the young +reservist Pietro Ricci,--a very good sort of fellow,--and I were +herded together beyond escape. Also, a foursome at bridge seemed +divinely indicated by our number, and to avert a sheer paralysis of +ennui we formed the habit of winning each other's money at that game. + +As we played I studied Van Blarcom, but without results. It was +ruffling; I should have absorbed in so much intercourse a fairly +definite impression of his personality, profession, and social grade. +But he was baffling; reticent, but self-assured, authoritative even, +and, in a quiet way, watchful. He smoked a good cigar, mixed a good +drink, seemed used to travel, but produced a coarse-grained effect, +made grammatical errors, and on the whole was a person from whom, once +ashore, I should flee. + +At six o'clock on the seventh night out our voyage entered its second +lap; all the electric lights were simultaneously extinguished as we +entered the danger zone. We made a sketchy toilet by means of tapers, +groped like wandering ghosts down a dim corridor, and dined by the +faint rays of candles thrust into bottles and placed at intervals +along the festive board. I went on deck afterward to find the ship +plunging through blackness on forced draft, with port-holes shrouded +and with not even a riding-light. If not in Davy Jones's locker by +that time, we should reach Gibraltar the next evening; afterward we +should head for Naples, a two days' trip. + +The following morning found our stormy weather over. The sea through +which we were speeding had a magic color, the dark, rich, +Mediterranean blue. Ascending late, I saw gulls flying round us and +seaweed drifting by, and Mr. McGuntrie in a state of nerves, with a +life belt about him, walking wildly to and fro. + +"Well, Mr. Bayne," he greeted me, "never again for mine! If I ever see +the end of this trip,--if you call it a trip; I call it merry hades,-- +believe me, I'll sell something hereafter that I can sell on land. I'm +a crackerjack of a salesman, if I do say it myself. Once I got started +talking I could get a man down below to buy a hot toddy and a set of +flannels--and I wish I'd gone down there and done it before I ever saw +this boat." + +Unmoved, I leaned on the railing and watched the blue swells break. +McGuntrie took a turn or two. In the ship's library he had discovered +a manual entitled "How to Swim," and he was now attempting between +laments to memorize its salient points. + +"The first essay is best made in water of not less than fifty degrees +Fahrenheit, and not more than four feet in depth," he gabbled, and +then broke off to gaze at the sea about us, chilly in temperature, and +countless fathoms deep. "Oh, what's the use? What the blue blazes does +it matter?" he cried hysterically. "I tell you that U-boat that sank +the /San Pietro/ is laying for us. In about an hour you'll see a +periscope bob up out there. Then we'll send out an S.O.S., and the +next thing you know we'll sink with all on board." + +We had as yet escaped this doom when toward six o'clock we approached +Gibraltar, running beneath a crimson sunset and between misty purple +shores. On one hand lay Africa, on the other the Moorish country, both +shrouded in a soft haze and edged with snowy foam. Down below the +soldiers of Italy were singing. A merchantman of belligerent +nationality, our ship proudly flew its flag again. Indeed, had it +failed to do so, the British patrol-boats would long since have known +the reason why. + +It was growing dark when I turned to find Van Blarcom at my elbow. + +"I didn't see you," I commented rather shortly. I don't like people to +creep up beside me like cats. + +"No," he responded. "I've been waiting quite a while. I didn't want to +disturb you, but the fact is I'd like a word with you, Mr. Bayne." + +I eyed him with curiosity. He was inscrutable, this quiet, alert, +efficient-looking man. Take, for instance, his present manner, half +self-assured, half respectfully apologetic--what grade in life did it +fit? + +"Well, here I am," I said briefly as I struck a match. + +"I've thought it over a good bit," he went on, apparently in self- +justification. "I don't know how you will take it, but I'll chance it +just the same. If I don't give you a hint, you don't get a square +deal. That's my attitude. Did you ever hear of Franz von Blenheim, Mr. +Bayne?" + +"Eh?" The question seemed distinctly irrelevant--and yet where had I +heard that name, not very long ago? + +"The German secret-service agent. The best in the world, they say." A +sort of reluctant admiration showed in Van Blarcom's face. "There +isn't any one that can get him; he does what he wants, goes where he +likes--the United States, England, France, Russia--and always gets +away safe. You'd think he was a conjurer to read what he does +sometimes. A whole country will be looking for him, and he takes some +one else's passport, puts on a disguise, and good-by--he's gone! +That's Franz von Blenheim. No; that's just an outline of him. And on +pretty good authority, he's in Washington now." + +Mr. Van Blarcom, I reflected, was surely coming out of his shell; this +was quite a monologue with which he was favoring me. It was dark now; +our lights were flaring. Being in a friendly port's shelter, we burned +electricity to-night. + +"You seem to know a whole lot about this fellow," I remarked idly in +the pause. + +"Yes, I do." He smiled a trifle grimly. "In fact, I once came near +getting him; it would have made my fortune, too. But he slipped +through my fingers at the last minute, and if I ever-- You see, I'm in +the secret-service myself, Mr. Bayne." + +I turned to stare at him. + +"The United States service?" I asked. + +"Yes." + +I nodded. All that had puzzled me was fairly clear in this new light. +Not at all the type of the star agents, those marvelous beings who +figure so romantically in fiction and on the boards, he was yet, I +fancied, a good example of the ruck of his profession, those who did +the every-day detective work which in such a business must be done. +But--Franz von Blenheim? What was my association with the name? Then I +recalled that in the extra I had read as we left harbor there had been +some account of the man's activities in Mexico. + +"What I wanted to say was this," Van Blarcom continued in his usual +manner--the manner that I now recognized to be a subtler form of the +policeman's, respectful to those he held for law-abiding, alert and +watchful to detect gentry of any other kind. "This line we're +traveling on now is one the spies use quite a bit. They used to go to +London straight or else to Bordeaux and Paris; but the English and +French got a pretty strict watch going, and now it's easier for them +to slip into France through Italy, by Modane. They sail for Naples +mostly, do you see? And--you won't repeat this?--it's fairly sure that +when Franz von Blenheim sends his government a report of what he's +done in Mexico against us, he'll send it by an agent who travels on +this line and lands in Italy and then slips into Germany by way of +Switzerland." + +We were drifting slowly into the harbor of Gibraltar, the rock looming +over us through the blackness, a gigantic mountain, a mass of tiered +and serried lights. Search-lights, too, shot out like swords, focused +on us, and swept us as we crept forward between dimly visible, +anchored craft. The throbbing of our engines ceased. A launch chugged +toward us, bringing the officers of the port. I watched, pleased with +the scene, and rather taken with my companion's discourse. It was not +unlike a dime novel of my youth. + +"Do you mean you've been sent on this line to watch for one of +Blenheim's agents?" I inquired. + +"No. I'm sent for some work on the other side--and I'm not telling you +what it is, either," he rejoined. "What I meant was that a man has to +be careful, traveling on these ships. They watch close. They have to. +Haven't you noticed that whenever two or three of us get to talking, a +steward comes snooping round? Well, I suppose you wouldn't, it not +being your business; but I have. We're watched all the time; and if +we're wise, we'll mind our step. Take you, for instance. You're a good +American, eh? And yet some spy might fool you with a cute story and +get your help and maybe play you for a sucker on the other side. I saw +that happen once. It was a nice young chap, and a pretty girl fooled +him--got him into a peck of trouble. What you want to remember is that +good spies never seem like spies." + +If I looked as I felt just then, the search-light that swept me must +have startled him. I could feel my face flushing, my hands clenching +as I caught his drift. I swung round. + +"What's this about?" I demanded sharply. But I knew. + +"Well," said the secret-service man discreetly, "I saw something +pretty funny the first night out, Mr. Bayne. It was safe enough with +me; I can tell a gentleman from a spy; but if an officer had seen it, +the thing wouldn't have been a joke. Suppose we put it this way. +There's a person on board I think I know. I haven't got the goods, +I'll own, but I don't often make mistakes. My advice to you, sir, is +to steer clear of strangers. And if I were you, I--" + +"That'll do, thanks!" I cut him short. "I can take care of myself. I +don't say your motives are bad,--you may think this is a favor,--but I +call it a confounded piece of meddling, and I'll trouble you to let it +end." + +He looked hurt and indignant. + +"Now, look here," he remonstrated, "what have I done but give you a +friendly hint not to get in bad? But maybe I was too vague about it; +you just listen to a few facts. I'll tell you who that young lady is +and who her people are and what she wants on the other side--" + +"No, you won't!" I declared. My voice sounded savage. I was recalling +how she had begged the extra of me, and how it had contained a full +account of Franz von Blenheim, the kaiser's man. "The young lady's +name and affairs are no concern of mine. If you know anything you can +keep it to yourself." + +As we glared at each other like two hostile catamounts, a steward +relieved the tension by running toward us down the deck. + +"/Signori, un momento, per piacere/!" he called as he came. The +British officers were on board, he forthwith informed us, and were +demanding, in accordance with the martial law now reigning at +Gibraltar, a sight of each passenger and his passport before the ship +should proceed. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THUMBSCREWS + +The salon of conversation, as the mirrored, gilded, and highly +varnished apartment was grandiloquently termed, had been the very spot +chosen for our presumably not very terrible ordeal. Things were well +under way. At the desk in the corner one officer was jotting down +notes as to the clearance papers and the cargo; while at a table in +the foreground sat his comrade, in a lieutenant's uniform, with the +captain of the /Re d'Italia/ at his right, swart-faced and silent, and +the list of the passengers lying before the pair. + +As I entered a few moments behind Van Blarcom, I perceived that the +interrogation had already run a partial course. Pietro Ricci, the +reservist, had, no doubt, emerged with flying colors and now stood +against the wall beside the doughty agent of the Phillipson Rifles, +who had apparently satisfied his inquisitor, too. Near the door a +group of stewards had clustered to watch with interest; and as I stood +waiting, the girl in furs came in. + +I put myself a hypothetical query. + +"If a girl," I thought, "materializes from the void, asks an +incriminating favor, and vanishes, does that put one on bowing terms +with her when one meets her again?" Evidently it did, for she smiled +brightly and graciously and bent her ruddy head. But she was pale, I +noticed critically; there was apprehension in her eyes. Wasn't it odd +that the prospect of a few simple questions from an officer should +disconcert her when she had possessed the courage, or the +foolhardiness, to sail on this line at this time? + +Really I could not deny that all I had seen of her was most +suspicious. For aught I knew, the secret-service man might be +absolutely right. I had treated him outrageously. I owed him an +apology, doubtless. But I still felt furious with him, and when she +looked anxiously at those officers, I felt furious with them too. + +Van Blarcom, his brief questioning ended, was turning from the table. +As he passed, I made a point of smiling companionably at the girl. + +"Now for the rack, the cord, and the thumbscrews," I murmured to her, +making way. + +The lieutenant was a tall, lean, muscular young man with a shrewd +tanned face in which his eyes showed oddly blue, and he half rose, +civilly enough, as the girl advanced. + +"Please sit down," he said with a strong English accent. "I'll have to +see your passport if you will be so good." She took it from the bag +she carried, and he glanced at it perfunctorily. + +"Your name is Esme Falconer?" + +"Yes," she replied. + +It was the name of the little Stuart princess, the daughter of Charles +the First, whose quaint, coiffed, blue-gowned portrait hangs in a +dark, gloomy gallery at Rome. I was subconsciously aware that I liked +it despite its strangeness, the while I wondered more actively if that +Paul Pry of a Van Blarcom had imparted to the ship's authorities the +suspicions he had shared with me. + +"You are an American, Miss Falconer? You were born in the States? You +are going to Italy--and then home again?" The questions came in a +reassuringly mechanical fashion; the man was doing his duty, nothing +more. + +"I may go also to France." Her voice was steady, but I saw that she +had clenched her hands beneath the table. + +I glanced at Van Blarcom, to find him listening intently, his neck +thrust forward, his eyes almost protruding in his eagerness not to +miss a word. But there was to be nothing more. + +"That is satisfactory, Miss Falconer," announced the Englishman; with +a little sigh of relief, she stood back against the wall. + +"If you please," said the officer to me in another tone. + +As I came forward, his eyes ran over me from head to foot. So did +Captain Cecchi's; but I hardly noticed; these uniforms, these +formalities, these war precautions, were like a dash of comic opera. I +was not taking them seriously in the least. The Britisher gestured me +toward a seat, but it seemed superfluous for so brief an interview, +and I remained standing with my hands resting on a chair. + +"I'll have your passport!" There was something curt in his manner. +"Ah! And your name is--?" + +"My name is Devereux Bayne." + +"How old are you?" + +"Thirty." + +"Where do you live?" + +"In New York and Washington." If he could be laconic, so could I. + +"You were born in America?" + +"No. I was born in Paris." By this time questions and answers were +like the pop of rifle-shots. + +"That was a long way from home. Lucky you chose the country of one of +our Allies." Was this sarcasm or would-be humor? It had an unpleasant +ring. + +"Glad you like it," I responded, with a cold stare, "but I didn't pick +it." + +"Well, if you weren't born in the States, are you an American +citizen?" he imperturbably pursued. + +"If you'll consult my passport, you'll see that I am." + +"Did either your father or your mother have any German blood?" + +I could hear a slight rustle back of me among the passengers, none of +whom, it was plain, had been subjected to such cross-questioning. I +was growing restive, but I couldn't tell him it was not his business; +of course it was. + +"No; they didn't," I briefly replied. + +"About your destination now." He was making notes of all my answers. +"You are going to Italy, and then--" + +"To France." + +"Roundabout trip, rather. The Bordeaux route is safer just now and +quicker, too. Why not have gone that way? And how long are you +planning to stop over on this side?" + +"It depends upon circumstances." What on earth ailed the fellow? He +was as annoying as a mosquito or a gnat. + +"I beg your pardon, but your plans seem rather at loose ends, don't +they? What are you crossing for?" + +"To drive an ambulance!" I answered as curtly as the words could be +said. + +I saw his face soften and humanize at the information. For once I had +made a satisfactory response, it seemed. But on the heels of my answer +there rose the voice of Mr. McGuntrie, sensational, accusing, pitched +almost at a shriek. + +"Look here, lieutenant," he was crying, "don't you let that fellow +fool you. I asked him the first night out if he was an ambulance boy, +and he denied it to me, up and down. I thought all along he was too +smart, hooting like he did at submarines. Guess he knew one would pick +him up all right if the rest of us did sink." + +"How about that, Mr. Bayne?" asked the Englishman, his uncordial self +once more. + +It was maddening. One would have thought them all in league to prove +me an atrocious criminal. + +"Simply this," I replied with the iciness of restrained fury, "that +this gentleman has been the steamer's pest ever since the night we +sailed. If I had answered his questions, every one, down to the ship's +cat, would have shared his knowledge within the hour. I did not deny +anything; I simply did not assent. You are an officer in authority; I +am answering you, though I protest strongly at your manner; but I +don't tell my affairs to prying strangers because we are cooped up on +the same boat." + +"H'm. If I were you I would keep my temper." He regarded me +thoughtfully, and then with rapier-like rapidity shot two questions at +my head. "I say, Mr. Bayne, you're positive about your parents not +having German blood, are you? And you are quite sure you were born in +Paris, not in--well, Prussia, suppose we say?" + +"What the--" I opportunely remembered the presence of Miss Esme +Falconer. "What do you mean?" I substituted less sulphurously, but +with a glare. + +He bent forward, tapping his forefinger against the desk, and his eyes +were like gimlets boring into mine. + +"I mean," he enlightened me, his voice very hard of a sudden, "that a +German agent is due to sail on this line, about this time, with +certain papers, and that from one or two indications I'm not at all +sure you are not the man." + +With sudden perspicacity, I realized that he took me for an emissary +of the great Blenheim. Exasperation overwhelmed me; would these +farcical complications never cease? + +"Good heavens, man," I exclaimed with conviction, "you are crazy! Look +at me! Use your common-sense! What on earth is there about me to +suggest a spy?" + +"In a good spy there never is anything suggestive." + +By Jove, that was the very thing the secret-service man had said! + +"You admit you were born abroad. You claim to be bound for France, but +you sail for Italy. And you are rather a soldier's type, tall, well +set-up, good military carriage. You'd make quite a showing in a field +uniform, I should say." + +"In a fiddlestick!" I snapped, weary of the situation. "So would you-- +so would our friend the Italian reservist there. I'm an average +American, free, white, and twenty-one, with strong pro-Ally sympathies +and a passport in perfect shape. This is all nonsense, but of course +there is something back of it. What has been your real reason for +deviling me ever since I entered this room?" + +The lieutenant was studying my face. + +"Mr. Bayne," he said slowly, "do you care to tell me the nature of the +package you threw across the rail the first night out?" + +I heard a gasp from the group behind me, a squeal of joy from +McGuntrie, a quick, low-drawn breath that surely came from the girl. +Preternaturally cool, I thought rapidly. + +"What's that you say? Package?" I repeated, trying to gain time. + +"Yes, package!" said the Englishman, sharply. "And we'll dispense with +pretense, please. These are war-times, and from common prudence the +Allies keep an eye on all passengers who choose to sail instead of +staying at home as we prefer they should. Captain Cecchi here reports +to me that one of his stewards saw you drop a small weighted object +overboard. He has asked me to interrogate you, instead of doing it +himself, so that you may have the chance to defend yourself in +English, which he doesn't speak." + +"/E vero/. It ees the truth," confirmed the captain of the /Re +d'Italia/--the one remark, by the way, that he ever addressed to me. + +"Well?" It was the Englishman's cold voice. "We are waiting, Mr. +Bayne! What was this object you were so anxious to dispose of? A +message from some confederate, too compromising to keep?" + +Heretofore I had carefully avoided looking at Miss Falconer, but at +this point, turning my head a trifle, I gave her a casual glance. Her +eyes had blackened as they had done that night on the deck; her face +had paled, and her breath was coming fast. But as I looked, her gaze +fell, and her lashes wavered; and I knew that whatever came she did +not mean to speak. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TIGHTENING WEB + +I did not, of course, want her to. I was no "Injun giver," and having +once pledged my word to help her, I was prepared to keep it till all +was blue or any other final shade. Still, it was not to be denied that +my position looked incriminating. She might be as honest as the +daylight,--I believed she was; I had to or else abandon her,--but she +had managed to plunge me into a confounded mess. + +Naturally I was exasperated at the net results of my piece of +gallantry. I didn't care to be suspected; I wasn't anxious to have to +lie. All the same, a plausible explanation, offered without delay, +appeared essential. I should have wanted as much myself had I been +guarding Gibraltar port. + +"Well, Mr. Bayne?" + +"Well!" I retorted coolly. "I was just wondering if I should answer. +This is an infernal outrage, you know. You don't really think I'm a +spy. What you are doing is to give me a third degree on general +principles. If you'll excuse my saying so I think you ought to have +more sense!" + +"Oh, of course we ought to take you on trust," he agreed sardonically. +"But we can't I'm afraid. The fact is, we have had an experience or +two to shake our faith. The last time this steamer stopped here we +caught a pair of spies who didn't look the part any more than you do; +and since then we have rather stopped taking appearances as +guarantees." + +"All right, then," I responded. "I'll stretch a point since it is war- +time. I give you my word that I threw overboard a small bronze paper- +weight that was cluttering up my traps. There was nothing +surreptitious about it; the whole steamer might have seen me. Do you +care to take the responsibility of having me shot for that?" + +"And I want to say, sir, that the gentleman is giving it to you +straight." An unexpected voice addressed the lieutenant at my back. "I +was standing at the door behind him that night, though he didn't know +it, and I can take my oath that what he says is gospel truth." + +My unlooked-for champion was Mr. John Van Blarcom. I stared at him, at +a loss to know why, on the heels of our row on deck and my rejection +of his friendly warning, he should perjure himself for me in so +obliging a fashion. He had, I was aware, been too far off that night +to know whether I had thrown away a paper-weight or a sand-bag. +Moreover, the object had been swathed beyond recognition in the extra +that was primarily responsible for all this fuss. "He is sorry for +me," I decided. "He thinks the girl has made a fool of me." Instead of +experiencing gratitude, I felt more galled and wrathful than before. + +"Is that so? How close were you?" the lieutenant asked alertly. "About +ten feet? You are quite sure? Well--it's all right, I suppose, then," +he admitted in a very grudging tone. + +"No, it isn't," I declared tartly. I was by no means satisfied with so +half-hearted a vindication; nor did I care to owe my immunity to a +patronizing lie on Mr. Van Blarcom's part. "You have accused me of +spying. Do you think I'll let it go at that? I insist that you have my +baggage brought up here and that you search it and search me." + +The face of the Englishman really relaxed for once. + +"That's a good idea. And it's what any honest man would want, Mr. +Bayne," he approved. "Since you demand it--certainly, we'll do it," +and he glanced at the captain, who promptly ordered two stewards to +fetch my traps from below. + +Things move rapidly on shipboard. My traveling impedimenta appeared in +the salon almost before I could have uttered the potent name of Jack +Robinson, had I cared to try. With cold aloofness I offered my keys, +and the head steward knelt to officiate, while the crowd gaped and the +second English officer abandoned his corner and his papers, standing +forth to watch with the lieutenant and the captain, thus forming an +intent and highly interested committee of three. + +The investigation began, very thorough, slightly harrowing. I had not +realized the embarrassing detail of such a search. An extended store +of collars suitable for different occasions; neat and glossy piles of +shirts, both dress and plain; black silk hose mountain high, and +neckties as numerous as the sea sands. Noting the rapt attention that +McGuntrie in particular gave to these disclosures, I felt that to +deserve so inhuman a punishment my crime must have been black indeed. +Shoes on their trees; articles of silk underwear; brushes, combs, +gloves, cards, boxes of cigarettes, an extra flask; some light +literature. And so on and so on, ad nauseam, till I grew dully +apathetic, and roused only to praise Allah when we left the boxes for +the trunk. + +Hardened by this time, I brazenly endured the exhibition of my +pajamas, not turning a hair when they were held up and shaken out +before the attentive crowd. In a similar spirit I bore the examination +of my coats and trousers, the rummaging of my vests, the investigation +of my hats. "Courage!" I told myself. "Nothing in the world is +endless." Indeed, the last garment was now being lifted, revealing +nothing beneath it save a leather wallet carefully tied. + +"Just look through that, will you?" I requested with chilling sarcasm. +"Otherwise you may get to thinking later that I had a note for the +kaiser there. In point of fact, those are simply some letters of +introduction that I am taking to--" I broke off abruptly. "Good Lord +deliver us!" I blankly exclaimed. "What's that?" + +The lieutenant, complying with my request, had unbound the wallet and +was flirting out its contents in fan-like fashion like a hand of +cards. I saw the imposing army of letters presented me by Dunny, who +knows everybody, headed by one to his old friend, the American +ambassador to France. So far, so good. But beneath them, with a +sickening sense of being in a bad dream, I beheld a thin sheaf of +papers, neatly folded, bound with red tape and sealed with bright red +wax,--an object which, to my certain knowledge, had no more business +among my belongings than the knives and plates that the conjurer +snatches from the surrounding atmosphere, or the hen which he evolves, +clucking, from an erstwhile empty sleeve. + +Standing there with the impersonal calm of utter helplessness, I +watched the Britisher break the seal and unfold the sheets. They were +thin and they were many and they were covered with closely jotted +hieroglyphics, row upon row. But the sphinx-like quality of the +contents afforded me no gleam of hope. If they had proclaimed as much +in the plainest English printing, I could have been no surer that they +were the papers of Franz von Blenheim; nor, as I learned a good while +afterward, was I mistaken in the belief. + +I was vaguely aware that the spectators were being ordered from the +salon. Captain Cecchi's eyes were dark stilettos; the gaze of the +Englishman was like a narrow flash of blue steel. He was going to say +something. I waited apathetically. Then the words came, falling like +icicles in the deadness of the hush. + +"If you wish, sir," he stated, "to explain why you are traveling with +cipher papers, Captain Cecchi and I will hear what you have to say." + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WHAT A THIEF CAN DO + +In sheer desperation I achieved a ghastly levity of demeanor. + +"Please don't shoot me yet," I managed to request. "And if I sit down +and think for a moment, don't take it for a confession. Any innocent +man would be shocked dumb temporarily if his traps gave up such loot." + +I sat down in dizzy fashion, my judges watching me. Through my mind, +in a mad phantasmagoria, danced the series of events that had begun in +the St. Ives restaurant and was ending so dramatically in the salon of +this ship. Or perhaps the end had not yet arrived, I thought +ironically. By a slight effort of imagination I could conjure up a +scene of the sort rendered familiar by countless movie dramas--a +lowering fortress wall, myself standing against it, scornfully waving +away a bandage, and drawn up before me a highly efficient firing- +squad. + +To all intents and purposes I was a spy, caught red-handed; but with +due respect for circumstantial evidence, I did not mean to remain one +long. That part of it was too absurd. There must be a dozen ways out +of it. Come! The fact that so strange an experience had befallen me in +a New York hotel on the eve of my sailing could not be pure +coincidence. There lay the clue to the mystery. Let me work it out. + +And then, as my wits began groping, comprehension came to me--a sudden +comprehension that left me stunned and dazed: The open trunk, the +thief, the descent by the fire-escape, the girl's calm denial, turning +us from the suspected floor. Yes, the girl! Heavens, what a blind dolt +I had been! No wonder that Van Blarcom had felt moved to say a helping +word for me, as for a congenital idiot not responsible for his acts! + +"When you are ready--" the lieutenant was remarking. I pulled myself +together as hastily as I could. + +"First," I began, with all the resolution I could muster, "I want to +say that I am as much at a loss as you are about this thing. I never +set eyes upon those papers until this evening. Why, man alive, I +insisted on the search! I asked you to examine the wallet! Do you +think I did all that to establish my own guilt?" + +"We'll keep to the point, please." His very politeness was ill omened. +"The papers were in your baggage. Can you explain how they came +there?" + +"I am going to try," I answered coolly. "To begin with, I can vouch +for it that they were not there two weeks ago when my man packed the +trunk. That I can swear to, for I glanced through the letters before +handing him the wallet; and when he had finished packing I locked the +trunk and went yachting for five days." + +"And your luggage? Did it go with you?" queried the Englishman. + +"No; it didn't. It remained in the baggage-room of my apartment house; +but when I landed and found hotel quarters, I had it sent to me at the +St. Ives." + +"So you stayed there!" He was eyeing me with ever-growing disfavor. +"You didn't know, of course, that it was a nest of agents, a sort of +rendezvous for hyphenates, and that the last spy we caught on this +line had made it his headquarters in New York?" + +"I did not," I replied stiffly. "But I can believe the worst of it. +Now, here's what befell me there." I recounted my adventure briefly, +beginning with the summons from restaurant to telephone. + +It was strange how, as I talked, each detail fell into its place, how +each little circumstance, formerly so mystifying, grew clear. The +alarm of the /maitre d'hotel/ over my sudden departure, his relief +when I entered the booths, his corresponding horror when, emerging, I +took the elevator for my room, puzzled me no longer. The deserted +halls, the flight of the little German intruder, the determined lack +of interest of the hotel management, were merely links in the chain. + +I told a straight, unvarnished story with one exception. When I came +to the point I couldn't bring in Miss Esme Falconer's name. I said +non-committally that a lady had occupied the room where the thief took +refuge; and I left it to be inferred that I had never seen her before +or since. + +The lieutenant heard my tale out with impassivity. "Is that all, Mr. +Bayne?" he asked shortly, as I paused. + +"Yes," I lied doggedly. "And if you want more, I call you insatiable. +I've told you enough to satisfy any man's appetite for the abnormal, +haven't I?" + +"Your defense, then," he summed it up, "is that under the protection +of a German management a German agent entered your room, opened your +trunk, concealed these papers in it, and repacked it. You believe +that, eh?" + +It sounded wild enough, I acknowledged gloomily as I sat staring at +the carpet with my elbows on my knees. + +"You've been a pretty fool, a pretty fool, a pretty fool!" the refrain +sang itself unceasingly in my ears. I was disgusted with the episode, +more disgusted yet with my own role. Why was I lying, why making +myself by my present silence as well as by my former density the +flagrant confederate of a clever spy? + +I shrugged my shoulders. + +"Oh, what's the use?" I muttered. "No, of course I don't believe it, +and you won't either if you are sane. It is too ridiculous. I might as +well suggest that if the thief hadn't been gone when they arrived, the +manager and the detective would have shanghaied me, or the house +doctor drugged me with a hypodermic till the fellow could get away. +Let's end all this! I'm ready to go ashore if you want to take me. In +your place I know I should laugh at such a story; and I think that on +general principles I should order the man who told it shot." + +"Not necessarily, Mr. Bayne," was the cool response of the Englishman. +"The trouble with you neutrals is that you laugh too much at German +spies. We warn you sometimes, and then you grin and say that it's +hysteria. But by and by you'll change your minds, as we did, and know +the German secret service for what it is--the most competent thing, +the most widely spread, and pretty much the most dangerous, that the +world has to fight to-day." + +"You don't mean," I inquired blankly, "that you believe me?" + +It looks odd enough as I set it down. Ordinarily I expect my word to +be accepted; but then, as a general thing I don't suddenly discover +that I have been chaperoning a set of German code-dispatches across +the seas. + +"I mean," he corrected with truly British phlegm, "that I can't say +positively your story is untrue. Here's the case: Some one--probably +Franz von Blenheim--wants to send these papers home by way of Italy +and Switzerland. Your hotel manager tells him you are going to sail +for Naples; you are an American on your way to help the Allies; it's +ten to one that nobody will suspect you and that your baggage will go +through untouched. What does he do? He has the papers slipped into +your wallet. Then he sends a cable to some friend in Naples about a +sick aunt, or candles, or soap. And the friend translates the cable by +a private code and reads that you are coming and that he is to shadow +you and learn where you are stopping and loot your trunk the first +night you spend ashore!" + +"I don't grasp," I commented dazedly; "why they should weave such +circles. Why not let one of their own agents bring over the papers?" + +The lieutenant smiled a faint, cold, wintry smile. + +"Spies," he informed me, "always think they are watched, and generally +they're not wrong in thinking so. If they can send their documents by +an innocent person, they had better. For my part, I call it a very +clever scheme." + +"I believe I am dreaming," I muttered. "Somebody ought to pinch me. +You found those infernal things nestling among my coats and hose and +trousers--and you don't think I put them there?" + +"I didn't say that," he denied as unresponsively as a brazen Vishnu. +"I simply say that I wouldn't care to order you shot as things stand +now. But you'll remember that I have only your word that all this +happened or that you are really an American or even that this passport +is yours and that your name is--ah--Devereux Bayne. We'll have to know +quite a bit more before we call this thing settled. How are you going +to satisfy his Majesty the King?" + +I plucked up spirit. + +"Well," I suggested, "how will this suit you? I'll go down to my +stateroom and stop there until we land in Italy; and, if you like, +just to be on the safe side with such a desperado as I am, you can put +a guard outside my door. But first, you'll send a sheaf of +marconigrams for me in both directions. You're welcome to read them, +of course, before they go. Then when we get to Naples, my friend, Mr. +Herriott, will meet the steamer. He is second secretary at the United +States embassy, and his identification will be sufficient, I suppose. +Anyhow, if it isn't, I dare say the ambassador will say a word for me. +I have known him for years, though not so well." + +"That would be quite sufficient as to identification." He stressed the +last word significantly, and I thanked heaven for Dunny and the forces +which I knew that rather important old personage could set to work. + +"Also," I continued coolly, "there will be various cablegrams from +United States officials awaiting us, which will convince you, I hope, +that I am not likely to be a spy. There will be a statement from the +friend who dined with me at the St. Ives. There will be the +declaration of the policeman who saw the German climb down the fire- +escape and bolt into the room beneath." "And hang the expense!" I +added inwardly, computing cable rates, but assuming a lordly +indifference to them which only a multimillionaire could really feel. + +The Englishman and the captain consulted a moment. Then the former +spoke: + +"That will be satisfactory, sir, to Captain Cecchi and to me. Write +out your cables, if you please. They shall be sent. And I say, Mr. +Bayne,--I hope you drive that ambulance. I'm not stationed here to be +a partizan, but you've stood up to us like a man." + +An hour later as I finished my solitary dinner, the electric lights +flickered and died, and the engines began their throb. Under cover of +the darkness we were slipping out of Gibraltar. I leaned my arms on +the table and scanned the remains of my feast by the light of my one +sad candle, not thinking of what I saw, or of the various calls for +help I had been dispatching, or of the sailor grimly mounting guard +outside my door. I was remembering a girl, a girl with ruddy hair and +a wild-rose flush and great, gray, starry eyes, a girl that by all the +rules of the game I should have handed over to those who represented +the countries she was duping, a girl that I had found I had to shield +when I came face to face with the issue. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BLACK BUTTERFLIES + +The Turin-Paris express--the most direct, the Italians call it--was +too popular by half to suit the taste of morose beings who wished for +solitude. With great trouble and pains I had ferreted out a single +vacant compartment; but as four o'clock sounded and the whistle blew +for departure, a belated traveler joined me--worse still, an +acquaintance who could not be quite ignored. + +The unwelcome intruder was Mr. John Van Blarcom, my late fellow- +voyager, and he accepted the encounter with a better grace than I. + +"Why, hello!" he greeted me cheerfully. "Going through to France? Glad +to see you--but you're about the last man that I was looking for. I +got the idea somehow you were planning to stop a while in Rome." + +I returned his nod with a curtness I was at no pains to dissemble. +Then I reproached myself, for it was undeniable that on the /Re +d'Italia/ he had more than once stood my friend. He had offered me a +timely warning, which I had flouted; he had obligingly confirmed my +statement in my grueling third degree. Yet despite this, or because of +it, I didn't like him; nor did I like his patronizing, complacent +manner, which seemed fairly to shriek at me, "I told you so!" + +"Changed my plans," I acknowledged with a lack of cordiality that +failed to ruffle him. He had hung up his overcoat and installed +himself facing me, and was now making preparations for lighting a fat +cigar. + +"Well," he commented, with a chuckle of raillery, after this +operation, "the last time I saw you you were in a pretty tight corner, +eh? You can't say it was my fault, either; I'd have put you wise if +you'd listened. But you weren't taking any--you knew better than I +did--and you strafed me, as the Dutchies say, to the kaiser's taste." + +"Good advice seldom gets much thanks, I believe," was my grumpy +comment, which he unexpectedly chose to accept as an apology and with +a large, fine, generous gesture to blow away. + +"That's all right," he declared. "I'm not holding it against you. +We've all got to learn. Next time you won't be so easy caught, I +guess. It makes a man do some thinking when he gets a dose like you +did; and those chaps at Gibraltar certainly gave you a rough deal!" + +"On the contrary," I differed shortly,--I wasn't hunting sympathy,-- +"considering all the circumstances, I think they were extremely fair." + +"Not to shoot you on sight? Well, maybe." He was grinning. "But I +guess you weren't hunting for a chance to spend two days cooped up in +a cabin that measured six feet by five." + +"It had advantages. One of them was solitude," I responded dryly. "And +it was less unpleasant than being relegated to a six-by-three grave. +See here, I don't enjoy this subject! Suppose we drop it. The fact is, +I've never understood why you came to my rescue on that occasion, you +didn't owe me any civility, you know, and you had to--well--we'll say +draw on your imagination when you claimed you saw what I threw +overboard that night." + +"Sure, I lied like a trooper," he admitted placidly. "Glad to do it. +You didn't break any bones when you strafed me, and anyhow, I felt +sorry for you. It always goes against me to see a fellow being +played!" + +Thanks to my determined coolness, the conversation lapsed. I buried +myself in the Paris "Herald," but found I could not read. Simmering +with wrath, I lived again the ill-starred voyage his words recalled to +me, breathed the close smothering air of the cabin that had held me +prisoner, tasted the knowledge that I was watched like any thief. An +armed sailor had stood outside my door by day and by night; and a +dozen times I had longed to fling open that frail partition, seize the +man by the collar, and hurl him far away. + +Glancing out at the landscape, I saw that Turin lay back of us and +that our track was winding through dark chestnut forests toward the +heights. Confound Van Blarcom's reminiscences and the thoughts they +had set stirring! In ambush behind my paper I gloomily relived the +past. + +Our ship, following sealed instructions, had changed her course at +Gibraltar, conveying us by way of the Spanish coast to Genoa instead +of Naples. From my port-hole I had gazed glumly on blue skies and +bright, blue waters, purple hills, and white-walled cities, and +fishing boats with patched, gaudy sails and dark-complexioned crews. +Then Genoa rose from the sea, tier after tier of pink and green and +orange houses and shimmering groves of olive trees; and I was summoned +to the salon, to face the captain of the port, the chief of the police +of the city, and their bedizened suites. + +Surrounded by plumes and swords and gold lace, I maintained my +innocence and heard Jack Herriott, on his opportune arrival, pour +forth in weird, but fluent, Italian an account of me that must have +surrounded me in the eyes of all present with a golden halo, and that +firmly established me in their minds as the probable next President of +the United States. Thanks to these exaggerations and to various +confirmatory cablegrams--Dunny had plainly set the wires humming on +receiving my S.O.S.,--I found myself a free man, at price of putting +my signature to a statement of it all. I shook the hand of the ever +non-committal Captain Cecchi, and left the ship. And an hour after +good old Jack was gazing at me in wrath unconcealed as I informed him +that I was in the mood for neither gadding, nor social intercourse, +and had made up my mind to proceed immediately to duty at the Front. + +"You've been seasick; that's what ails you," he said, diagnosing my +condition. "Oh, I don't expect you to admit it--no man ever did that. +But you wait and see how you feel when we've had a few meals at the +Grand Hotel in Rome!" + +This culinary bait leaving me cold, he lost his temper, expressed a +hope that the Germans would blow my ambulance to smithereens, and +assured me that the next time I brought the Huns' papers across the +ocean I might extricate myself without his assistance from what might +ensue. However, though he has a bark, Jack possesses no bite worth +mentioning. He even saw me off when I left by the north-bound train. + +Leaning moodily forward, I looked again from the window and wished I +might hurry the creaking, grinding revolution of the wheels. We were +climbing higher and higher among the mountains. The chestnuts, growing +scanter, were replaced by dark firs and pines. Streams came winding +down like icy crystal threads; the little rivers we crossed looked +blue and glacial; pale-pink roses and mountain flowers showed +themselves as we approached the peaks. A polite official, entering, +examined our papers; and with snow surrounding us and cold clear air +blowing in at the window, we left Bardonnecchia, the last of the +frontier towns. + +I was speeding toward France; but where was the girl of the /Re +d'Italia/? To what dubious rendezvous, what haunt of spies, had she +hurried, once ashore? The thought of her stung my vanity almost beyond +endurance. She had pleaded with me that night, swayed against me +trustingly, appealed to me as to a chivalrous gentleman and, having +competently pulled the wool over my eyes, had laughed at me in her +sleeve. + +I had held myself a canny fellow, not an easy prey to adventurers; a +fairly decent one, too, who didn't lie to a king's officer or help +treasonable plots. Yet had I not done just those things by my silence +on the steamer? And for what reason? Upon my soul I didn't know, +unless because she had gray eyes. + +"Hang it all!" I exclaimed, flinging my unlucky paper into a corner, +and becoming aware too late that Van Blarcom was observing me with a +grin. + +"I've got the black butterflies, as the French say," I explained +savagely. "This mountain travel is maddening; one might as well be a +snail." + +"Sure, a slow train's tiresome," agreed Van Blarcom. "Specially if +you're not feeling overpleased with life anyway," he added, with a +knowing smile. + +An angry answer rose to my lips, but the Mont Cenis tunnel opportunely +enveloped us, and in the dark half-hour transit that followed I +regained my self-control. It was not worth while, I decided, to +quarrel with the fellow, to break his head or to give him the chance +of breaking mine. After all, I thought low-spiritedly, what right had +I to look down on him? We were pot and kettle, indistinguishably +black. It was true that he had perjured himself upon the liner; but +so, in spirit if not in words, had I! + +Thus reflecting, I saw the train emerge from the tunnel, felt it jar +to a standstill in the station of Modane, and, in obedience to +staccato French outcries on the platform, alighted in the frontier +town. Followed by Van Blarcom and preceded by our porters, I strolled +in leisurely fashion towards the customs shed. The air was clear, +chilly, invigorating; snowy peaks were thick and near. And the scene +was picturesque, dotted as it was with mounted bayonets and blue +territorial uniforms--reminders that boundary lines were no longer +jests and that strangers might not enter France unchallenged in time +of war. + +Van Blarcom's elbow at this juncture nudged me sharply. + +"Say, Mr. Bayne," he was whispering, "look over there, will you? What +do you know about that?" + +I looked indifferently. Then blank dismay took possession of me. +Across the shed, just visible between rows of trunks piled mountain +high, stood Miss Esme Falconer, as usual only too well worth seeing +from fur hat to modish shoe. + +"Ain't that the limit," commented the grinning Van Blarcom; "us three +turning up again, all together like this? Well, I guess she won't have +to call a policeman to stop you talking to her. You know enough this +time to steer pretty clear of her. Isn't that so?" + +But I had wheeled upon him; the coincidence was too striking! + +"Look here!" I demanded, "are you following that young lady? Is that +your business on this side?" + +"No!" he denied disgustedly, retreating a step. "Never saw her from +the time we docked till this minute; never wanted to see her! Anyhow, +what's the glare for? Suppose I was?" + +"It's rather strange, you'll admit." I was regarding him fixedly. "You +seemed to have a good deal of information about her on the ship. Yet +when that affair occurred at Gibraltar, you were as dumb as an oyster. +Why didn't you tell the captain and the English officers the things +you knew?" + +"Well, I had my reasons," he replied defiantly. "And at that, I don't +see as you've got anything on me, Mr. Bayne. You're no fool. You put +two and two together quick enough to know darned well who planted +those papers in your baggage; so if you thought it needed telling, why +didn't you tell it yourself?" + +"I don't know who put them there," I denied hastily, "except that he +was a pale little runt of a German, pretending to be a thief, who will +wish he had died young if I ever see him again." + +An inspector had just passed my traps through with bored indifference. +I turned a huffy back on Van Blarcom and went to stand in line before +a door which harbored, I was told, a special commission for the +examination of passports and the admission of travelers into France. + +Reaching the inner room in due course, I saluted three uniformed men +who sat round an unimposing wooden table, exhibited the /vise/ that +Jack Herriott had secured for me at Genoa, and was welcomed to the +land. Then I stepped forth on the platform, retrieved my porter and my +baggage, and placed myself near the door to wait until the girl should +come. + +I must have been a grim sort of sentinel as I stood there watching. I +knew what I had to do, but I detested it with all my heart. There was +one thing to be said for this Miss Falconer--she had courage. She was +pressing on to French soil without lingering a day in Italy, though +she must be aware that by so swift a move she was risking suspicion, +discovery, death. + +As moment after moment dragged past, I grew uneasy. Would she come out +at all? Could she win past those trained, keen-eyed men? The more I +thought of it, the more desperate seemed the game she was playing. +This little Alpine town, high among the peaks, surrounded by pines and +snow, had been a setting for tragedies since the war began. These +territorials with their muskets were not mere supers, either. But no! +She was emerging; she was starting toward the /rapide/. There, no +doubt, a reserved compartment was awaiting her, and once inside its +shelter, she would not appear again. + +I drew a deep breath in which resolve and distaste were mingled. She +had crossed the frontier, but she was not in Paris yet. I couldn't +shirk the thing twice, knowing as I did her charm, her beauty, her air +of proud, spirited graciousness--all the tools that equipped her. I +couldn't, if I was ever again to hold my head before a Frenchman, let +her pass on, so daring and dangerous and resourceful, to do her work +in France. + +As she approached, I stepped in front of her, lifting my hat. + +"This is a great surprise, Miss Falconer," said I. + + + +CHAPTER X + +DINNER FOR TWO + +I was prepared for fear, for distress, for pleading as I confronted +Miss Falconer; the one thing I hadn't expected was that she should +seem pleased at the meeting, but she did. She flushed a little, smiled +brightly, and held out her gloved hand to me. + +"Why, Mr. Bayne! I am so glad!" she exclaimed in frankly cordial +tones. + +The crass coolness of her tactics, with its implied rating of my +intelligence, was the very bracer I needed for a most unpleasant task. +I accepted her hand, bowed over it formally, and released it. Then I +spoke with the most impersonal courtesy in the world. + +"And I," I declared coolly, "am delighted, I assure you. It is great +luck meeting you like this; and I will not let you slip away. I +suppose that when we board the train they will serve us a meal of some +sort. Won't you give me the pleasure of having you for my guest?" + +The brightness had left her face as she sensed my attitude. She drew +back, regarding me in a rebuffed, bewildered way. + +"Thank you, no. I am not hungry." + +By Jove, but she was an actress! I should have sworn I had hurt her if +I hadn't known the truth. + +"Don't say that!" I protested. "Of course it is unconventional to dine +with a stranger; but then so is almost everything that is happening to +you and me. Think of those lord high executioners in there round the +table. See this platform with its guards and bayonets and guns. And +then remember our odd experiences on the /Re d'Italia/. Won't you risk +one more informality and come and dine?" + +She hesitated a moment, watching me steadily; then, with proud +reluctance, she walked beside me toward the train. + +"You helped me once," she said, her eyes averted now, "and I haven't +forgotten. I don't understand at all,--but I shall do as you say." + +The passengers were being herded aboard by eager, bustling officials. +I saw my baggage and the girl's installed, disposed of the porters, +and guided my companion to the /wagon/ restaurant. The horn was +sounding as we entered, and at six-thirty promptly, just as I put Miss +Falconer in her chair, we pulled out of the snowy station of Modane. + +As I studied the menu, the girl sat with lowered lashes, all things +about her, from her darkened eyes and high head to her pallor, +proclaiming her feeling of offense, her sense of hurt. She knew her +game, I admitted, and she had first-class weapons. Though she could +not weaken my resolution, she made my beginning hard. + +"We are going to have a discouraging meal," I gossiped +procrastinatingly. "But, since we are in France, it will be a little +less horrible than the usual dining-car. The wine is probably +hopeless; I suggest Evian or Vichy. These radishes look promising. +Will you have some?" + +"No. I am not hungry," she repeated briefly. "Won't you please tell me +what you have to say?" + +Though I didn't in the least want them, I ate a few of the radishes +just to show that I was not abashed by her haughty, reproachful air. +Other passengers were strolling in. Here was Mr. John Van Blarcom, +who, at the sight of Miss Falconer and myself to all appearances +cozily established for a tete-a-tete meal, stopped in his tracks and +fastened on me the hard, appraising scrutiny that a policeman might +turn on a hitherto respectable acquaintance discovered in converse +with some notorious crook. For an instant he seemed disposed to +buttonhole me and remonstrate. Then he shrugged his stocky shoulders, +the gesture indicating that one can't save a fool from his folly, and +established himself at a near-by table, from which coign of vantage he +kept us under steady watch. + +Given such an audience, my outward mien must be impeccable. + +"There is something," I admitted cautiously, "that I want to say to +you. But I wish you would eat something first. People are watching +us," I added beneath my breath as the soup appeared. + +She took a sip under protest, and then replaced her spoon and sat with +fingers twisting her gloves and eyes fixed smolderingly on mine. I +shifted furtively in my seat. This was a charming experience. I was +being, from my point of view, almost quixotically generous; yet with +one glance she could make me feel like a bully and a brute. + +"I am sure," I stumbled, fumbling desperately with my serviette, "that +you came over without realizing what war conditions are. Strangers +aren't wanted just now. Travel is dangerous for women. You may think +me all kinds of a presumptuous idiot,--I shan't blame you,--but I am +going to urge you most strongly to go home." + +Whatever she had looked for, obviously it was not that. + +"Mr. Bayne," she exclaimed, regarding me wonderingly, "what do you +mean?" + +"Just this, Miss Falconer," I answered with almost Teutonic +ruthlessness. Confound it! I couldn't sit here forever bullying her; +sheer desperation lent me strength. "The /Espagne/ sails from Bordeaux +on Saturday, I see by the Herald, and if I were you, I should most +certainly be on board. In fact, if you lose the chance, I am sure +you'll regret it later. The French police authorities are--er--very +inquisitive about foreigners; and if you stop in France in these +anxious times, I think it likely that they may--well--" + +She drew a quick, hard breath as I trailed off into silence. Her eyes, +darkened, horrified, were gazing full into mine. + +"You wouldn't tell them about me! You couldn't be so cruel!" The words +came almost fiercely, yet with a sound like a stifled sob. + +By its sheer preposterousness the speech left me dumb a moment, and +then gave me back the self-possession I had been clutching at +throughout the meal. For the first time since entering I sat erect and +squared my shoulders. I even confronted her with a rather glittering +smile. + +"I am very sorry," I said, with a cool stare, "if I appear so; but I +am consideration itself compared with the people you would meet in +Paris, say. That's the very point I'm making--that you can't travel +now in comfort. I'm simply trying to spare you future contretemps, +Miss Falconer; such as I had on the /Re d'Italia/, you may recall." + +She leaned impulsively across the table. + +"Oh, Mr. Bayne, I knew it! You are angry about that wretched extra, +and you have a right to be. Of course you thought it cowardly of me-- +yes, and ungrateful--to stand there without a word and let those +officers question you. Mr. Bayne, if the worst had come to the worst, +I should have spoken, I should, indeed; but I had to wait. I had to +give myself every chance. It meant so much, so much! You had nothing +to hide from them. You were certain to win through. And then, you +seemed so undisturbed, so unruffled, so able to take care of yourself; +I knew you were not afraid. It was different with me. If they began to +suspect, if they learned who I was, I could never have entered France. +This route through Italy was my one hope! I am so sorry. But still--" + +Hitherto she had been appealing; but now she defied frankly. That tint +of hers, like nothing but a wild rose, drove away her pallor; her gray +eyes flamed. + +"But still," she flashed at me, "you won't inform on me just for that? +I asked you to help me; you were free to refuse--and you agreed! +Because it inconvenienced you a little, are you going to turn police +agent?" Her red lips twisted proudly, scornfully. "I don't believe it, +Mr. Bayne!" + +I laughed shortly. She was indeed an artist. + +"I wasn't thinking of that particular episode--" I began. + +"But you did resent it. I saw it when you first joined me. And I was +so glad to see you--to have the chance of thanking you!" she broke in, +smoldering still. + +"No, I didn't resent it. I didn't even blame you. If I blamed any one, +Miss Falconer, it would certainly be myself. I've concluded I ought +not to go about without a keeper. My gullibility must have amused you +tremendously." I laughed. + +"I never thought you gullible," she denied, suddenly wistful. "I +thought you very generous and very chivalrous, Mr. Bayne." + +This was carrying mockery too far. + +"I am afraid," I said meaningly, "that the authorities at Gibraltar +would take a less flattering view. For instance, if those Englishmen +learned that I had refrained from telling them of our meeting at the +St. Ives, I should hear from them, I fancy." + +Again her eyes were widening. What attractive eyes she had! + +"The St. Ives?" she repeated wonderingly. "Why should that interest +them? What do you mean?" Then, suddenly, she bent forward, propped her +elbows on the table, and amazed me with a slow, astonished, +comprehending smile. "I see!" she murmured, studying me intently. "You +thought that I screened the man who hid those papers, that I crossed +the ocean on--similar business, perhaps even that on this side I was +to take the documents from your trunk?" + +"Naturally," I rejoined stiffly. "And I congratulate you. It was a +brilliant piece of work; though, as its victim, I fail to see it in +the rosiest light." + +"I understand," she went on, still smiling faintly. "You thought I +was--well-- Look over yonder." + +Her glance, seeking the opposite wall unostentatiously, directed my +attention to a black-lettered, conspicuously posted sign: + + +BE SILENT! + +BE MISTRUSTFUL! + +THE EARS OF THE ENEMY ARE LISTENING! + + +Thus it shouted its warning, like the thousands of its kind that are +scattered about the trains, the boats, the railroad stations, and all +the public places of France. + +"You thought I was the ears of the enemy, didn't you?" the girl was +asking. "You thought I was a German agent. I might have guessed! Well, +in that case it was kind of you not to hand me over to the Modane +gendarmes. I ought to thank you. But I wasn't so suspicious when they +searched your trunk and found the papers--I simply felt that they must +be crazy to think you could be a spy." + +I achieved a shrug of my shoulders, a polite air of incredulity; but, +to tell the truth, I was a little less skeptical than I appeared. +There was something in her manner that by no means suggested pretense. +And she had said a true word about the occurrences on the /Re +d'Italia/. If appearances meant facts, I myself had been proved guilty +up to the hilt. + +"Mr. Bayne," she was saying soberly, "I should like you to believe me +--please! I am an American, and I have had cause lately to hate the +Germans; all my bonds are with our own country and with France. There +is some one very dear to me to whom this war has worked a cruel +injustice. I have come to try to help that person; and for certain +reasons--I can't explain them--I had to come in secret or not at all. +But I have done nothing wrong, nothing dishonorable. And so"--again +her eyes challenged me--"I shall not sail from Bordeaux on the +/Espagne/ on Saturday; and you shall choose for yourself whether you +will speak of me to the French police." + +It was not much of an argument, regarded dispassionately; yet it shook +me. With sudden craftiness I resolved to trap her if I could. + +"I ought to tell them on the mere chance that they would send you +home," I grumbled irritably. "You have no business here, you know, +helping people and being suspected and pursued and outrageously +annoyed by fools like me. Yes, and by other fools--and worse," I added +with feigned sulphurousness, indicated Van Blarcom. "Miss Falconer, +would you mind glancing at the third man on the right--the dark man +who is staring at us--and telling me whether or not you ever saw him +before you sailed?" + +"I am sure I never did," she declared, knitting puzzled brows; "and +yet on the /Re d'Italia/ he insisted that we had met. It frightened me +a little. I wondered whether or not he suspected something. And every +time I see him he watches me in that same way." + +I was thawing, despite myself. + +"There's one other thing," I ventured, "if you won't think me too +impertinent: Did you ever hear of a man named Franz von Blenheim?" + +"No," she said blankly; "I never did. Who is he?" + +No birds out of that covert! If this was acting it was marvelous; +there had not been the slightest flicker of confusion in her face. + +"Oh, he isn't anybody of importance--just a man," I evaded. "Look +here, Miss Falconer, you'll have to forgive me if you can. You shall +stay in Paris, and I'll be as silent as the grave concerning you; but +I'd like to do more than that. Won't you let me come and call? Really, +you know, I'm not such a duffer as you have cause to think me. After +we got acquainted you might be willing to trust me with this business, +whatever it is. And then, if it's not too desperate, I have friends +who could be of help to you." Such was the sop I threw to conscience, +the bargain I struck between sober reason and the instinct that made +me trust her against all odds. My theories must have been moonshine. +Everything was all right, probably. But for the sake of prudence I +ought to keep track of her. Besides, I wanted to. + +Gratitude and consternation, a most becoming mixture, were in her +eyes. She drew back a little. + +"Oh, thank you, but that's impossible," she said uncertainly. "I have +friends, too; but they can't help me. Nobody can." + +"Well," I admitted sadly, "I know the rudiments of manners. I can +recognize a conge, but consider me a persistent boor. Come, Miss +Falconer, why mayn't I call? Because we are strangers? If that's it, +you can assure yourself at the embassy that I am perfectly +respectable; and you see I don't eat with my knife or tuck my napkin +under my chin or spill my soup." + +Again that warm flush. + +"Mr. Bayne!" she exclaimed indignantly. "Did I need an introduction to +speak to you on the ship, to ask unreasonable favors of you, to make +people think you a spy? If you are going to imagine such absurd +things, I shall have to--" + +"To consent? I hoped you might see it that way." + +"Of course," she pondered aloud, "I may find good news waiting. If I +do, it will change everything. I could see you once, at least, and let +you know. I really owe you that, I think, when you've been so kind to +me." + +"Yes," I agreed bitterly, with a pang of conscience, "I've been very +kind--particularly to-night!" + +"Well, perhaps to-night you were just a little difficult." She was +smiling, but I didn't mind; I rather liked her mockery now. "Still, +even when you thought the worst of me, Mr. Bayne, you kept my secret. +And--do you really wish to come to see me?" + +"I most emphatically do." + +She drew a card from her beaded bag, rummaged vainly for a pencil, +ended by accepting mine, and scribbled a brief address. + +"Then," she commanded, handing me the bit of pasteboard, "come to this +number at noon to-morrow and ask for me. And now, since I'm not to go +to prison, Mr. Bayne, I believe I am hungry. This is war bread, I +suppose; but it tastes delicious. And isn't the saltless butter nice?" + +"And here are the chicken and the salad arriving!" I exclaimed +hopefully. "And there never was a French cook yet, however unspeakable +otherwise, who failed at those." + +What had come to pass I could not have told; but we were eating +celestial viands, and my black butterflies having fled away, a swarm +of their gorgeous-tinted kindred were fluttering radiantly over Miss +Esme Falconer's plate and mine. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IN THE RUE ST.-DOMINIQUE + +Arriving in Paris at the highly inconvenient hour of 8 A.M., our +/rapide/ deposited its breakfastless and grumpy passengers on the +platform of the Gare de Lyon, washed its hands of us with the final +formality of collecting our tickets, and turned us forth into a gray, +foggy morning to seek the food and shelter adapted to our purses and +tastes. Every one, of course, emerged from seclusion only at the +ultimate moment; and, far from holding any lengthy conversation with +Miss Falconer, I was lucky to stumble upon her in the vestibule, help +her descend, find a taxi for her at the exit, and see her smile back +at me where I stood hatless as she drove away. + +While I waited for my own cab I found myself beside Mr. John Van +Blarcom, who eyed me with mingled hostility and pity, as if I were a +cross between a lunatic and a thief. I returned his stare coolly; +indeed, I found it braced me. Left to myself, I had experienced a +creeping doubt as to the girl's activities and my own intelligence; +but as soon as this fellow glared at me, all my confidence returned. + +"Well, Mr. Bayne," he remarked sardonically, breaking the silence, "I +suppose you're worrying for fear I'll give you another piece of good +advice. Don't you fret! From now on you can hang yourself any way you +want to. I'd as soon talk to a man in a padded cell and a strait- +jacket. Only don't blame me when the gendarmes come for you next +week." + +"Oh, go to the devil!" I retorted curtly. It was a relief; I had been +wanting to say it ever since we had first met. His jaw shot out +menacingly, and for an instant he squared off from me with the look of +the professional boxer; but, rather to my disappointment, he thought +better of it and turned a contemptuous back. + +Upon leaving Genoa I had reserved a room at the Ritz by telegraph. I +drove there now, and refreshed myself with a bath and breakfast, +casting about me meanwhile for some mode of occupying the hours till +noon. There were various tasks, I knew, that should have claimed me; a +visit to the police to secure a /carte de sejour/, the presentation of +my credentials as an ambulance-driver, a polite notification to +friends that I had arrived. These things should have been my duty and +pleasure, but somehow they were uninviting. Nothing appealed to me, I +realized with sudden enlightenment, except a certain appointment that +I had already made. + +I went out, to find that the fog was lifting and spring was in the +air. Since my dinner the previous night I had felt an odd +exhilaration, a pleasure quickened by the staccato sparkle of the +French tongue against my ears, the pale-blue uniforms, and gay French +faces glimpsed as the train had stopped at various lighted stations. +Saluting Napoleon's statue, I strolled up the rue de la Paix, took a +table on a cafe pavement, and, ordering a glass of something fizzy for +the form of it, sat content and happy, watching the whole gigantic +pageant of Paris in war-time defile before my eyes. + +The Cook's tourists and their like, bane of the past, had disappeared; +but all nationalities that the world holds seemed to be about. At the +next table two Russian officers, with high cheek-bones and wide-set +eyes, were drinking, chatting together in their purring, +unintelligible tongue. Beyond them a party of Englishmen in khaki, +cool-mannered, clear of gaze, were talking in low tones of the spring +offensive. The uniforms of France swarmed round me in all their +variety, and close at hand a general, gorgeous in red and blue and +gold, sat with his hand resting affectionately on the knee of a lad in +the horizon blue of a simple poilu, who was so like him that I guessed +them at a glance for father and son. + +A cab drew up before me, and a Belgian officer with crutches was +helped out by the cafe starter, who himself limped slightly and wore +two medals on his breast. First one troop and then another defiled +across the Place l'Opera: a company of infantry with bayonets mounted, +a picturesque regiment of Moroccans, turbaned, of magnificently +impassive bearing, sitting their horses like images of bronze. Men of +the Flying Corps, in dark blue with wings on their sleeves, strolled +past me; and once, roused by exclamations and pointing fingers, I +looked up to see a monoplane, light and graceful as a darting bird, +skimming above our heads. + +Even the faces had a different look, the voices a different ring. It +was another country from that of the days of peace. Superb and +dauntless, tried by the most searing of fires and not found wanting, +France was standing girt with her shining armor, barring the invader +from her cities, her villages, her homes. + +Deep in my heart--too deep to be talked of often--there had lain +always a tenderness for this heroic France. "A man's other country," +some wise person had christened it; and so it was for me, since by a +chance I had been born here, and since here my father and then my +mother had died. I was glad I had run the gauntlet and had reached +Paris to do my part in a mighty work. An ambulance drove heavily past +me, and with a thrill I wondered how soon I should bend over such a +steering wheel, within sound of the great guns. + +Leaving the cafe at last, I beckoned a taxi and settled myself on its +cushions for a drive. Each new vista that greeted me was enchanting. +The pavements, the river, the buildings, the stately bridges,--all +held the same soft, silvery tint of pale French gray. In the Place de +la Concorde the fountains played as always, but--heart-warming change +--the Strasburg statue, symbol of the lost Lorraine and Alsace, no +longer drooped under wreaths of mourning, but sat crowned and +garlanded with triumphant flowers. + +Like diminishing flies, the same eternal swarm of cabs and motors +filled the long vista of the Champs-Elysees between the green branches +of the chestnut trees. At the end loomed the Arc de Triomphe, beneath +which the hordes of the kaiser, in their first madness of conquest, +had sworn to march. Farther on, in the Bois, along the shady paths and +about the lakes, the French still walked in safety, because on the +frontier their soldiers had cried to the Teutons the famous watchword, +"You do not pass!" Noon was approaching, and at the Porte Maillot I +consulted Miss Falconer's card. + +"Number 630, rue St.-Dominique," I bade the driver, the address +falling comfortably on my ears. I knew the neighborhood. Deep in the +Faubourg St.-Germain, it was a stronghold of the old noblesse, +suggesting eminent respectability, ancient and honorable customs, and +family connections of a highly desirable kind. It would be a point in +Miss Falconer's favor if I found her conventionally established--a +decided point. Along most lines I was in the dark concerning her, but +to one dictum I dared to hold: no girl of twenty-two or thereabouts, +more than ordinarily attractive, ought to be traveling unchaperoned +about this wicked world. + +I felt very cheerful, very contented, as my taxi bore me into old +Paris. The ancient streets, had a decided lure and charm. Now we +passed a quaint church, now a dim and winding alley, now a house with +mansard windows or a portal of carved stone. On all sides were +buildings that in the old days had been the /hotels/ of famous gentry, +this one sheltering a Montmorency, that one a Clisson or Soubise. It +was just the setting for a romance by Dumas. And, with a chuckle, I +felt myself in sudden sympathy with that writer's heroes, none of whom +had, it seemed to me, been enmeshed in a mystery more baffling or +involved than mine. + +"They've got nothing on my affair," I decided, "with their masks and +poisoned drinks and swords. For a fellow who leads a cut-and-dried +existence generally, I've been having quite a lively time. And now, to +cap the climax, I'm going to call on a girl about whom I know just one +thing--her name. By Jove, it's exactly like a story! I've got the +data. If I had any gray matter I could probably work out the facts. + +"Take the St. Ives business. It's plain enough that some one wished +those papers on me, intending to unwish them in short order once we +got across. The logical suspect, judging by appearances, was Miss +Falconer. The little German went out through her room; she was the one +person I saw both at the hotel and on the /Re d'Italia/; and she acted +in a suspicious manner that first night aboard the ship. But she says +she didn't do it, and probably she didn't; it seemed infernally odd, +all along, for her to be a spy. + +"Still, if she is innocent, who can be responsible? And if that affair +didn't bring her over here, what the dickens did? Something +mysterious, something dangerous, something that the French police +wouldn't appreciate, but that her conscience sanctions--that is all +she deigns to say. And why on earth did she ask me to destroy that +extra? I thought it was because she was Franz von Blenheim's agent and +the paper had an account of him that might have served as a clue to +her. She says, though, that she never heard of him. And I may be all +kinds of a fool, but it sounded straight. + +"Then, there's Van Blarcom, hang him! He seemed to take a fancy to me. +He warned me about the girl, but he kept a still tongue to Captain +Cecchi and the rest. He lied deliberately, for no earthly reason, to +shield me in that interrogation; yet when those papers materialized in +my trunk, though he must have thought just what I thought as to Miss +Falconer's share in it, he didn't breathe a word. He claimed that he +had met her. She said she had never seen him. And then--rather strong +for a coincidence--we all three met again on the express. What is he +doing on this side? Shadowing her? Nonsense? And yet he seemed +almighty keen about her--Oh, hang it! I'm no Sherlock Holmes!" + +The taxi pausing at this juncture, I willingly abandoned my attempt at +sleuthing and got out in the highest spirits compatible with a +strictly correct mien. I dismissed my driver. If asked to remain to +/dejeuner/, I should certainly do so. Then, with feelings of natural +interest, I gazed at the house before which I stood. + +In the outward seeming, at least, it was all that the most fastidious +could have required; a gem of Renaissance architecture in its turrets, +its quaint, scrolled windows, and the carving of its stone facade. Age +and romance breathed from every inch of it. For not less than four +hundred years it had watched the changing life of Paris; and even to a +lay person like myself a glance proclaimed it one of those ancestral +/hotels/, the pride of noble French families, about which many +romantic stories cling. + +At another time it would have charmed me hugely, but to-day, as I +stood gazing, somehow, my spirits fell. Was it the almost sepulchral +silence of the place, the careful drawing of every shutter, the fact +that the grilled gateway leading to the court of honor was locked? I +did not know; I don't know yet; but I had an odd, eerie feeling. It +seemed like a place of waiting, of watching, and of gloom. + +This was unreasonable; it was even down-right ridiculous. I began to +think that late events were throwing me off my base. "It's a house +like any other, and a jolly fine old one!" I assured myself, +approaching the grilled entrance and producing one of my cards. + +An entirely modern electric button was installed there, beneath a now +merely ornamental knocker in grotesque gargoyle form. I pressed it, +peering through the iron latticework at the stately court. The answer +was prompt. Down the steps of the hotel came a white-headed majordomo, +gorgeously arrayed, and so pictorial that he might have been a family +retainer stepping from the pages of an old tale. + +There was something queer about him, I thought, as he crossed the +courtyard; just as there was about the house, I appended doggedly, +with growing belief. His air was tremulous, his step slow, his gaze +far-off and anxious. + +"For Miss Falconer, who waits for me," I announced in French, offering +him my card through the grille. + +He bowed to me with the deference of a Latin, the grand manner of an +ambassador; but he made no motion to let me in. + +"Mademoiselle," he replied, "sends all her excuses, all her regrets to +monsieur, but she leaves Paris within the hour and, therefore may not +receive." + +I had feared it for a good sixty seconds. None the less, it was a blow +to me. My suspicions, never more than half laid, promptly raised their +heads again. + +"Have the kindness," I requested, with a calm air of command that I +had known to prove hypnotic, "to convey my card to mademoiselle, and +to say that I beg of her, before her departure, one little instant of +speech." + +But the old fellow's faded blue eyes were gazing past me, hopelessly +sad, supremely mournful. What the deuce ailed him? I wondered angrily. +The thing was almost weird. Of a sudden, with irritation, yet with +dread, too, I felt myself on the threshold of a house of tragedy. The +man might, from the look of him, have been watching some loved young +master's bier. + +"Mademoiselle regrets greatly," he intoned, "but she may not receive. +Mademoiselle sends this letter to monsieur that he may understand." He +passed me, through the locked grille, a slender missive; then he +saluted me once more and, still staring before him with that fixed, +uncanny look, withdrew. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE GRAY CAR + +I was divided between exasperation and pity. The old fellow was in a +bad way; I felt sorry for him. Dunny had an ancient butler, a +household institution, who had presided over our destinies since my +childhood and would, I fancied, look something like this if he should +hear that I was dead. But in heaven's name, what was wrong here, and +was nothing in the world clear and aboveboard any longer? On the +chance that the letter might enlighten me I tore open the envelope and +read with mixed feelings the following note: + + + DEAR Mr. BAYNE: + + The news that I found waiting for me was not good, as I had hoped. + It was bad, very bad--as bad as news can be. I must leave Paris at + once, and I can see no one, talk to no one, before I go. Please + believe that I am sorry, and that I shall never forget the + kindness you showed me on the ship. + +Sincerely yours, + +ESME FALCONER. + + +That was all. Well, the episode was ended--ended, moreover, with a +good deal of cavalierness. She had treated me like a meddlesome, +pertinacious idiot who had insisted on calling and had to be taught +his place. This was a Christian country where the formalities of life +prevailed; I could not--unless escorted and countenanced by gendarmes +--seize upon a club and batter down that grille. + +I was resentful, wrathful, in the very deuce of a humor. Black gloom +settled over me. I admitted that Van Blarcom had been right. I +recalled the girl's vague explanations as we sat over our dinner; her +denials, unbolstered save by my willingness to accept them; all the +chain of incriminating circumstances that I had pondered over in the +cab. Her charm and the mystery that enveloped her had thrilled and +stirred me; she had seen it. To gain a few hours' leeway she had once +again duped me; and this hotel, with its deceptive air of family and +respectability, was a blind, a rendezvous, another such setting for +intrigue as the St. Ives. + +Her work might be already accomplished. Perhaps she had left Paris. I +told myself with some savageness that I did not know and did not care. +From the first my presence in this luridly adventurous galley had been +incongruous; I would get back with all despatch to the Ritz and the +orderly world it typified. + +I had gone perhaps twenty feet when a grating noise attracted me. +Glancing back across my shoulder, I saw that the old majordomo was +unlocking and setting wide the gate. The hum of a self-starter reached +me faintly, and a moment later there rolled slowly forth a dark-blue +touring-car of luxurious aspect, driven by a chauffeur whose coat and +cap and goggles gave him rather the appearance of a leather brownie, +and bearing in the tonneau Miss Falconer, elaborately coated and +veiled. + +She was turning to the right, not the left; she would not pass me. I +stood transfixed, watching from my post against the wall. As the car +crept by the old majordomo, he saluted, and she spoke to him, bending +forward for a moment to rest her fingers on his sleeve. + +"Be of courage, Marcel, my friend! All will be well if /le bon Dieu/ +wills it," I heard her say. Then to the chauffeur she added: "/En +avant, Georges! Vite, a/ Bleau!" The motor snorted as the car gained +speed, and they were gone. + +The ancient Marcel, reentering, locked the grille behind him. I was +left alone, more astounded than before. The girl's kind speech to the +old servant, her gentle tones, her womanly gesture, had been +bewildering. Despite all the accusing features her case offered, I +should have said just then, as I watched Miss Esme Falconer, that she +was nothing more or less than a superlatively nice girl. + +"Honk! Honk! Honk!" + +I swung round, startled. A moment earlier the length and breadth of +the street had stretched before me, empty; yet now I saw, sprung +apparently out of nowhere, a long, lean, gray car, low-built like a +racer, carrying four masked and goggled men. Steadily gaining speed as +it came, it bore down upon me and, after grazing me with its running- +board and nearly deafening me with the powerful blast of its horn, +flew on down the street and vanished in Miss Falconer's wake. + +Trying to clarify my emotions, I stared after this Juggernaut. Was it +merely the sudden appearance of the thing, its look, so lean and +snake-like and somber-colored, and the muffled air of its occupants +that had struck me as sinister when it went flashing by? I wasn't +sure, but I had formed the impression that these men were following +Miss Falconer. A patently foolish idea! And yet, and yet-- + +My experiences at the St. Ives and on the /Re d'Italia/ had +contributed to my education. I could no longer deny that melodrama, +however unwelcome, did sometimes intrude itself into the most unlikely +lives. The girl was bound somewhere on a secret purpose. Could these +four men be her accomplices? Were they going too? + +"/A/ Bleau!" + +Those had been her words to the chauffeur; for Bleau, then, she was +bound. But where did such a place exist? I had never heard of it; and +yet I possessed, I flattered myself, through the medium of motor- +touring, a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the map of France. + +The affair was becoming a veritable nightmare. It seemed incredible +that a few minutes earlier I had resolved to wash my hands of it all. +If the girl had a disloyal mission, it was my plain duty to intercept +her. I could not denounce her to the police. I didn't analyze the why +and wherefore of my inability to take this step; I simply knew and +accepted it. If I interfered with what she was doing, I must interfere +quietly, alone. + +Ordinarily I have as much imagination as a turnip, but now I indulged +in a sudden and surprising flight of fancy. Might it be, I found +myself wondering, that the men in the gray care were not Miss +Falconer's accomplices, but her pursuers? In that case, high as was +her courage, keen as were her wits,--I found myself thinking of them +with a sort of pride,--she was laboring under a handicap of which she +could not dream. + +Again, where had that long, lean, pursuing streak sprung from? Could +it have lurked somewhere in the neighborhood, spying on the hotel that +Miss Falconer had just left, waiting for her to emerge? I was aware of +my absurdity, but I couldn't put an end to it; with each instant that +went by my uneasiness seemed to grow. So I yielded, not without qualms +as to whether the quarter would take me for a gibbering idiot. Grimly +and doggedly I stalked the length of the rue St.-Dominique, and the +stately houses on both sides seemed to scorn me, their shutters to eye +me pityingly, as I peered to right and left for the possible cache of +the car. + +And within four hundred feet I found it. Against all reason and +probability, there it was. At my left there opened unostentatiously +one of those short, dark, neglected blind alleys so common in the +older part of Paris, with the houses meeting over it and forming an +arched roof. Running back twenty feet or so, it ended in a blank wall +of stone; and, amid the dust and debris that covered its rough paving, +I distinctly made out the tracks of tires, with between them, freshly +spilt, a tiny, gleaming pool of oil. + +At this psychological moment a taxicab came meandering up the street. +It was unoccupied, but its red flag was turned down. The driver shook +his head vigorously as I signaled him. + +"I go to my /dejeuner/, Monsieur!" he explained. + +"On the contrary," said I fiercely, "you go to the tourist bureau of +Monsieur Cook in the Place de l'Opera, at the greatest speed the +/sergents de ville/ allow!" + +I must have mesmerized him, for he took me there obediently, casting +hunted glances back at me from time to time when the traffic +momentarily halted us, as if fearing to find that I was leveling a +pistol at his head. + +It being noon, the office of the tourist bureau was almost deserted, a +single, bored-looking, young French clerk keeping vigil behind the +travelers' counter. With the sociable instinct of his nation he +brightened up at my appearance. + +"I want," I announced, "to ask about trains to Bleau." + +For a moment he looked blank; then he smiled in understanding. + +"Monsieur is without doubt an artist," he declared. + +I was not, decidedly; but the words had been an affirmation and not a +question. It seemed clear that for some cryptic reason I ought to have +been an artist. Accordingly, I thought it best to bow. + +He seemed childishly pleased with his acumen. + +"Monsieur will understand," he explained, "that before the war we sold +tickets to many artists, who, like monsieur, desired to paint the old +mill on the stream near Bleau. It has appeared at the Salon many +times, that mill! Also, we have furnished tickets to archaeologists +who desired to see the ruins of the antique chapel, a veritable gem! +But monsieur has not an archaeologist's aspect. Therefore, monsieur is +an artist." + +"Perfectly," I agreed. + +"As to the trains," he continued contentedly, "there is but one a day. +It departs at two and a half hours, upon the Le Moreau route. Monsieur +will be wise to secure, before leaving Paris, a safe-conduct from the +/prefecture/; for the village is, as one might say, on the edge of the +zone of war. With such a permit monsieur will find his visit charming; +regrettable incidents will not occur; undesirable conjectures about +monsieur's identity will not be roused. I should strongly advise that +monsieur provide himself with such a credential, though it is not, +perhaps, absolutely /de rigueur/." + +Back in my room at the Ritz, I consulted my watch. It was a quarter of +two; certainly time had marched apace. Should I, like a sensible man, +descend to the restaurant and enjoy a sample of the justly famous +cuisine of the hotel? Or should I throw all reason overboard and post +off on--what was it Dunny had called my mission--a wild-goose chase? + +I glanced at myself in the mirror and shook a disapproving head. +"You're no knight-errant," I told my impassive image. "You're too +correct, too indifferent-looking altogether. Better not get beyond +your depth!" I decided for luncheon, followed by a leisurely knotting +of the threads of my Parisian acquaintance. Then, as if some malign +hypnotist had projected it before me, I saw again a vision of that +flashing, lean, gray car. + +"I'm hanged if I don't have a shot at this thing!" + +The words seemed to pop out of my mouth entirely of their own accord. +By no conscious agency of my own, I found myself madly hurling +collars, handkerchiefs, toilet articles, whatever I seemed likeliest +to need in a brief journey, into a bag. Lastly I realized that I was +standing, hat in hand, overcoat across my arm, considering my +revolver, and wondering whether taking it with me would be too stagy +and absurd. + +"No more so than all the rest of it," I decided, shrugging. Dropping +the thing into my pocket, I made for the /ascenseur/. + +"I shan't be back to-night," I informed the hall porter woodenly. "Or +perhaps to-morrow night. But, of course, I'm keeping my room." + +With his wish for a charming trip to speed me, I left the Ritz, and +luckily no vision was vouchsafed me of the condition in which I should +return: Two crutches, a bandaged head, an utterly disreputable aspect; +my bedraggled state equaled--and this I would maintain with swords and +pistols if necessary--that of any poilu of them all. + +As I drove toward the station, various headlines stared at me from the +kiosks. "Franz von Blenheim Rumored on Way to France," ran one of +them. Hang Franz. I had had enough of him to last the rest of my life. +"Duke of Raincy-la-Tour Still Missing," proclaimed another. I knew +something about him, too; but what? Ah, to be sure, he was the Firefly +of France, the hero of the Flying Corps, the young nobleman of whose +suspected treason I had read in that extra on the ship. In that damned +extra, I amended, with natural feeling. For it was like Rome; +everything seemed to lead its way. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AT THE THREE KINGS + +"What's the best hotel in the place?" I inquired somewhat dubiously. +The man in the blouse, who had performed the three functions of +opening my compartment-door, carrying my bag to the gate, and +relieving me of my ticket, achieved a thoroughly Gallic shrug. + +"Monsieur," said he, "what shall I tell you? The best hotel, the worst +hotel--these are one. There is only the Hotel des Trois Rois in the +town of Bleau. Let monsieur proceed by the street of the Three Kings +and he will reach it. Formerly there was an omnibus, but now the +horses are taken. And if they remained, who could drive them with all +the men at the war?" + +Carrying my bag and feeling none too amiable, I set off along the +indicated route. In Paris, rushing from the rue St.-Dominique to +Cook's office, from that office to the hotel, from the hotel to the +/gare/, I had been a sort of whirling dervish with no time for sober +thought. My trip of four hours on a slow, stuffy, crowded train had, +however, afforded me ample leisure; and I had spent the time in grimly +envisaging the possibilities that, I decided, were most likely to +befall. + +First and foremost disagreeable; that the men in the gray automobile +were helping Miss Falconer in some nefarious business. In this case, +it would be up to me to fight the gentlemen single-handed, rescue the +girl, and escort her back to Paris, all without scandal. Easier said +than done! + +Second possibility: that Miss falconer, pausing at Bleau only en +route, might already have departed, and that I would be left with my +journey for my pains. + +Third: that the gray car had no connection with her; that she had some +entirely blameless errand. I hoped so, I was sure. If this proved +true, I was bound to stand branded as a meddling, officious idiot, one +who, in defiance of the most elementary social rules, persisted in +trailing her against her will. Vastly pleasant, indeed! + +Fuming, I shifted my bag from one hand to the other and walked faster. +Night was falling, but it was not yet really dark, and I formed a +clear enough notion of the village as I traversed it. It was one of +the hundreds of its kind which make an artists' paradise of France. +Entirely unmodernized, it was the more picturesque for that. If I +tripped sometimes on the roughly paved street I could console myself +with the knowledge that these cobbles, like the odd, jutting houses +rising on both sides of them, were at least three hundred years old. +Green woods, clear against a background of rosy sunset, ran up to the +very borders of the town. I passed a little, gray old church. I +crossed a quaint bridge built over a winding stream lined with +dwellings and broken by mossy washing-stones. It was all very +peaceful, very simple, and very rustic. Without second sight I could +not possibly have visioned the grim little drama for which it was to +serve as setting. + +A blue sign with gilded letters beckoned me, and I paused to read it. +The Touring Club of France recommended to the passing stranger the +Hotel of the Three Kings. Here I was, then. From the street a dark, +arched, stone passage of distinctly /moyen-age/ flavor led me into a +courtyard paved with great square cobbles, round the four sides of +which were built the walls of the inn. Winding, somewhat crazy- +looking, stone staircases ran up to the galleries from which the +bedroom doors informally opened; vines, as yet leafless, wreathed the +gray walls and framed the shuttered windows; before me I glimpsed a +kitchen with a magnificent oaken ceiling and a medieval fireplace in +which a fire roared redly; and at my right yawned what had doubtless +been a stable once upon a time, but with the advent of the motor, had +become a primitive garage. + +I took the liberty of peering inside. Eureka! There, resting +comfortably from its day's labors, stood a dark-blue automobile. If +this was not the motor that had brought Miss Falconer from the rue +St.-Dominique, it was its twin. + +"You'll notice it's alone, though," I told myself. "Where's the gray +car?" + +My mood was grumpy in the extreme. The inn was charming, but I knew +from sad experience that no place combines all attractions, and that a +spot so picturesque as this would probably lack running water and +electric light. + +"/Bonsoir, Monsieur!/" + +A buxom, smiling, bare-armed woman had emerged from the kitchen door. +She was plainly the hostess. I set down my bag and removed my hat. + +"Madame," I responded, "I wish you a good evening. I desire a room for +the night in the Hotel of the Three Kings." + +"To accommodate monsieur," she assured me warmly, "will be a pleasure. +Monsieur is an artist without doubt?" + +I wanted to say "/Et tu, Brute!/" but I didn't. When one came to think +of it, I had no very good reason to advance for having appeared at +Bleau. It wasn't the sort of place into which one would drop from the +skies by pure chance, either. I was lucky to find a ready-made +explanation. + +"But assuredly," said I. + +She disappeared into the kitchen, returned immediately with a candle, +and led me up the stone staircase on the left of the courtyard, +talking volubly all the while. + +"We have had many artists here," she declared; "many friends of +monsieur, doubtless. Since monsieur is of that fine profession, his +room will be but four francs daily; his dinner, three francs; his +little breakfast, a franc alone." + +"Madame," I responded, "it is plain that the high cost of living, +which terrorizes my country, does not exist at Bleau." + +Equally plain, I thought pessimistically, was the explanation. My +saddest forebodings were realized; if the name of the hotel meant +anything and three kings ever tarried here, that conjunction of +sovereigns had put up with housing of a distinctly primitive sort. My +room was clean, I acknowledged thankfully, but that was all I could +say for it. I eyed the bowl and pitcher gloomily, the hard-looking +bed, the tiny square of carpeting in the center of the stone floor. + +"Your house, Madame," I suggested craftily, with a view to +reconnoissance, "is, of course, full?" + +She heaved a sigh. + +"It is war-time, Monsieur," she lamented. "None travel now. Yet why +should I mourn, since I make enough to keep me till the war is ended +and my man comes home? There are those who eat here daily at the noon +hour--the cure, the mayor, the mayor's secretary, sometimes the notary +of the town, as well. And to-night I have two guests, monsieur and the +young lady--the nurse who goes to the hospital at Carrefonds with the +great new remedy for burns and scars. /Au revoir, Monsieur/. In one +little moment I will send the hot water, and in half an hour monsieur +shall dine." + +I closed the door behind her and flung down my bag, fuming. So Miss +Falconer was a nurse, carrying a panacea to the wounded, doubtless a +specimen of the sensational new remedy just recognized by the medical +authorities, of which the one newspaper I had glanced through in Paris +had been full. The masquerade was too preposterous to gain an +instant's credence. It gave me, as the French say, furiously to think; +it resolved all doubts. + +I felt inexplicably angry, then preternaturally cool and competent. +For the first time since the Modane episode I was my clear-sighted +self. I had been trying futilely to blindfold my eyes, to explain the +inexplicable, to be unaware of the obvious. Now with a sort of grim +relief I looked the facts in the face. + +My hot water appearing, I made a sketchy toilet, and then descended to +the courtyard where I lounged and smoked. My state of mind was +peculiar. As I struck a match I noticed with a queer pride that my +hand was steady. With a cold, almost sardonic clarity, I thought of +Miss Falconer. First a prosperous tourist, next a dweller in an +aristocratic French mansion, then a nurse. She equaled, I told myself, +certain heroines of our Sunday supplements, queens of the smugglers, +moving spirits of the diamond ring. + +Upstairs in the right-hand gallery a door opened. A light footstep +sounded on the winding stairs. The critical moment was upon me; she +was coming. I threw away my cigarette and advanced. + +She was playing her part, I saw, with due regard for detail. Now that +her furs were off she stood forth in the white costume, the flowing +head-dress, the red cross--all the panoply of the /infirmiere/. She +came half-way down the stairs before perceiving me; then, with a low +exclamation, grasping the balustrade, she stood still. + +I didn't even pretend surprise. What was the use of it? + +"Good-evening, Miss Falconer," was all I said. + +It seemed a long time before she answered. Rigid, uncompromising, she +faced me; and I read storm signals in the deep flush of her cheeks, +the gray flash of her eyes, the stiffness of her white-draped head. + +"Oh, Lord!" I groaned to myself in cold compassion, "she means to +bluff it! Can't she see that the game's played out?" + +"This is very strange, Mr. Bayne," she was saying idly. "I understood +that you were to drive an ambulance at the Front." + +How young, how lovely, how glowing she looked as she stood there in +her snowy dress. I found myself wondering impersonally what had led +her to these devious paths. + +"So I am," I responded with accentuated coolness. "My time is +valuable; it was a sacrifice to come to Bleau; but I had no choice. +What's wrong, Miss Falconer? You don't object to my presence surely? +If you go on freezing me like this, I shall think there's something +about my turning up here that worries you--upon my soul I shall!" + +She should by rights have been trembling, but her eyes blazed at me +disdainfully. I felt almost like a caitiff, whatever that may be. + +"It doesn't worry me," she denied, with the same crisp iciness, "but +it does surprise me. Will you tell me, please, what you are doing +here?" + +Should I return, "And you?" in a voice of obvious meaning? Should I +take a leaf from the book of my hostess and say: "I'm a bit of an +artist. I've sketched all over Europe, and I've come to have a go at +the old mill that so many fellows try"? Such a claim would just match +the assumption of her costume. But no. + +"The fact is," I said serenely, "I came straight from the rue St.- +Dominique to keep the appointment you forgot." + +The announcement, it was plain, exasperated her, for slightly, but +undeniably, she stamped one arched, slender, attractively shod foot. + +"Mr. Bayne," she demanded, "are you a secret-service agent?" + +"Good heavens!" I exclaimed, startled. No!" + +"Then I'm sorry. That would have been a better reason for following me +than--than the only one there is," she swept on stormily. "You knew I +didn't wish to see any one at present. I said so in the note I left. +Yet you spied on me and you tracked me deliberately, when I had +trusted you with my address. It's outrageous of you. You ought to be +ashamed of doing it, Mr. Bayne." + +A stunned realization burst on me of the line that she was taking, the +position into which, willy-nilly, she was crowding me. I had trailed +her here, she assumed, to thrust my company on her; and, upon the +surface, I had to own that my behavior really had that air. If I had +followed her with equal brazenness along Fifth Avenue, I should have +had a chance to explain my conduct to the first police officer who +noticed it, later to an indignant magistrate. But, heavens and earth! +She knew why I had come. And knowing, how did she dare defy me? I +retained just sufficient presence of mind to stare back impassively +and to mumble with feeble sarcasm: + +"I'm very sorry you think so." + +She came down a step. + +"Are you?" she asked imperiously. "Then--will you prove it? Will you +go back to Paris by to-night's train?" + +I had recovered myself. + +"There isn't any train to-night," I protested, civil, but adamant. +"And--I'm sorry, but if there was I wouldn't take it--not until I've +accomplished what I came to do!" + +The girl seemed to concentrate all the world's disdain in the look +that measured me, running from my head to my unoffending feet, from my +feet back to my head. + +"Most men would go, Mr. Bayne," she flung at me, her red lips +scornful. "But then, most men wouldn't have come, of course. And all +you will accomplish is to make me dine up here in this--this wretched, +stuffy room." Before I could lift a hand in protest, she had turned, +mounted the stairs again, and vanished. The door--shall I own it?-- +slammed. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE PLOT THICKENS + +Presently, summoned by the hostess, I went to my lonely meal in a mood +that nobody on earth had cause to envy me. One thing was certain: +Should it ever be disclosed that Miss Esme Falconer was not a spy, I +should lack courage to go on living. Remembering the coolly brazen +line I had taken and the assumptions she had drawn from it, I could +think of no desert wide enough to hide my confusion, no pit +sufficiently deep to shelter my utterly crestfallen head. + +In any case, I had not managed my attack at all triumphantly. From the +first skirmish the adversary had retired with all the honors on her +side. Carrying the matter with a high hand, she had dazed me into +brief inaction, and then, as I gave signs of rally, had retreated in +what to say the least was a highly strategic way. Well, let her go for +the moment! She could scarcely escape me. I would see the thing +through, I told myself with growing stubbornness; but I didn't feel +that the doing of a civic duty was what it is cracked up to be. Not at +all! + +I felt the need of a cocktail with a kick to it. But I did not get +one. However, the cabbage soup was eatable, if primitive; and, in +fact, no part of the dinner could be called distinctly bad. + +Having finished my coffee, I went outside feeling more cheerful. It +was dark now. A lantern swinging from the entrance cast flickering +darts of light about the courtyard, the rough paving-stones, the odd +old galleries and stairs. Upstairs a candle shone through the window +of Miss Falconer's room. In the kitchen by the great chimney place I +could see a leather-clad chauffeur eating, the same fellow that had +driven the blue car from the rue St.-Dominique; and while I watched, +madame emerged, bearing the girl's dinner tray, which with much +groaning and panting she carried up the winding stairs. + +It was foolish of Miss Falconer, I thought, to insist on this comedy. +She might better have dined with me, heard what I had to say, and +yielded with a good grace. However, let her have her dinner in peace +and solitude, I resolved magnanimously. The moon had come out, the +stars too; I would take a stroll and mature my plans. + +Lighting a cigarette, I lounged into the street and addressed myself +forthwith to an unhurried tour of Bleau. I was gone perhaps an hour, +not a very lengthy interval, but one in which a variety of things can +occur, as I was to learn. My walk led me outside the village, down a +water path between trees, and even to the famous mill, which was +charming. Had I been of the fraternity of artists, as I had claimed, I +should have asked no better fate than to come there with canvas and +brushes and immortalize the quiet beauty of the scene. + +A rustic bridge invited me, and I stood and smoked upon it, listening +to the ripple of the half-golden, half-shadowy water, watching the +revolutions of the green old wheel. I had laid out my plan of action. +On my return to the inn I would insist on an interview with Miss +Falconer, and would tell her that either she must return with me to +Paris or that the police of Bleau--I supposed it had police--must take +a hand. + +My metamorphosis into a hero of adventure, racing about the country, +visiting places I had never heard of, coolly assuming the control of +international spy plots, brutally determining to kidnap women if +necessary, was astounding to say the least. That dinner in the St. +Ives restaurant rose before me, and I heard again Dunny's charge that +I was growing stodgy with advancing years. Suppose he should see me +now, involved in these insane developments? He might call me various +unflattering things, but not stodgy--not with truth. I chuckled half- +heartedly, my last chuckle, by the by, for a long time. Unknown to me +and unsuspected, the darker, more deadly side of the adventure was +steadily drawing near. + +When I entered the courtyard of the Three Kings, the door of the +garage stood open, and the first object my eyes met within it was the +pursuing gray car. I stared at the thing, transfixed. In the march of +events I had forgotten it. I was still gaping at it when madame came +hurrying forth. + +"I have been watching," she informed me, "for monsieur's return. +Friends of his arrived here soon after he left the house." + +"The deuce they did!" I thought, dumb-founded. I judged prudence +advisable. + +"They have names, these friends?" I inquired warily. + +"Without doubt, Monsieur," she agreed, "but they did not offer them; +and who am I to ask questions of the officers of France? They are +bound on a mission, plainly. In time of war those so engaged talk +little. They have eaten, and they have gone to their rooms, off the +gallery to the west. And the fourth of their party--he alone wears no +uniform; he is doubtless of monsieur's land--asked of me a description +of my guests, and exclaimed in great delight, saying that monsieur was +his old friend, whom he had hoped to find here and with whom he must +have speech the very moment that monsieur should return. I know no +more." + +It was enough. + +"He's mistaken," I said shortly. For the moment I really thought that +this must be the case. + +Her broad, good-natured face was all astonishment. + +"But, Monsieur," she burst forth, "he even told me, this gentleman, +that such might be monsieur's reply! And in that event he commanded me +to beg monsieur to walk upstairs, since he had a thing of importance +to reveal to monsieur--one best said behind closed doors!" + +I stared at her, my head humming like a top. Then, scrutinizingly, I +looked about the court. The light in Miss Falconer's room had been +extinguished. Did that have some significance? Was she lying perdue +because these people had come? In the rooms opening from the west +gallery above the street entrance I could see moving shadows. The gray +car had arrived, and it bore three officers of France for passengers. +What could this mean? + +Of course, whoever had left the message had mistaken me for a +confederate. I could not know any of the new arrivals; it was equally +impossible that they could know me. None the less, with a slight, +unaccustomed thrill of excitement, I resolved to accept the invitation +as if in absolute good faith. It was a first-class chance to get +inside those rooms, to use my eyes, to sound this affair a little, to +learn whether these men were the girl's pursuers. As army officers +they could scarcely be her accomplices. Would they forestall me by +arresting her, by taking her back to Paris? It was astonishing how +distasteful I found the idea of that. + +I told madame that I thought I knew, now, who the gentlemen were. I +climbed the west staircase with determination and knocked on the door +of the first room that had a light. A voice from within, vaguely +familiar, bade me enter, I did so immediately and closed the door. + +Through an inner entrance I saw three men grouped about a table in the +next room, all smoking cigarettes, all clad in horizon blue. They +glanced up at me for a moment, and then, politely, they looked away. +But a fourth man, who had stood beside them, came striding out to meet +me, and I confronted Mr. John Van Blarcom face to face. + +Officers fresh from the trenches have told me that one can lose +through sheer accustomedness all horror at the grim sights of warfare, +all consciousness of ear-splitting noises, all interest in gas and +shrapnel and bursting shells. In the same way one can lose all +capacity for astonishment, I suppose. I don't think I manifested much +surprise at this unexpected meeting; and I heard myself remarking +quite coolly that there had been a mistake, that I had been told +downstairs that a friend of mine was here. + +"That's right, Mr. Bayne," cut in Van Blarcom shortly. "I've been a +friend of yours clear through, and I'm acting as one now. Just a +minute, sir, please!" + +He had shut the door between ourselves and the officers, and now he +was drawing the shutters close. Coming back into the room, he seated +himself, and motioned me toward a chair, which I didn't take. His +authoritative manner was, I must say, not unimpressive. And he knew +how to arrange a rather crude stage-setting; the room, with all air +and sound excluded, seemed tense and breathless; the one dim candle on +the table lent a certain solemnity to the scene. + +"Look here, Mr. Bayne," he began bluffly, "last time you spoke to me +you told me to-- Well, we'll let bygones by bygones; I guess you +remember what you said. You don't like me, and I'm not wasting any +love on you; as far as you're personally concerned, I'd just as soon +see you hang! But I've got to think of the United States. I'm in the +service, and it doesn't do her any good to have her citizens get in +bad with France." + +Standing there, gazing at him with an air of bored inquiry, behind my +mask of indifference I racked my brain. What did he want of me? What +did he want of Miss Falconer? What was he doing in this military +galley? Hopeless queries, without the key to the puzzle! + +"Well?" I said. + +"I don't ask you," he went on crisply, "what you're doing here--" + +"You had better not!" I snapped. "What tomfoolery is this? Do you +think you are a police officer heckling a crook? And why should you +ask me such a question any more than I should ask you?" + +He grinned meaningly. + +"Well," he commented, "there might be reasons. I'm here on business, +with papers in order, and three French officers to answer for me; but +you're a kind of a funny person to make a bee-line for a place like +Bleau. An inn like this doesn't seem your style, somehow. I'd say the +Ritz was more your type. And while we're at it, did you go to the +Paris /Prefecture/ this morning, like all foreigners are told to, and +show your passport, and get your police card? Have you got it with +you? If you have you stepped pretty lively, considering you left Paris +by three o'clock." + +"If any one in authority asks me that," I said, "I'll answer him. I +certainly don't propose to answer you." My arms were folded; I looked +haughtily indifferent; but it was pure bluff. The only paper I had +with me was my passport. What the dickens could I do if he turned +nasty along such lines. + +"As I was saying," he resumed, unruffled, "I'm not asking you why +you're here--because I know. I've got to hand it to you that you're a +dead-game sport. Most men's hair would have turned white at Gibraltar +after the fuss you had. And here you are again--in the ring for all +you're worth!" + +"I suppose you mean something," I said wearily, "but it's too subtle +and cryptic. Please use words of one syllable." + +He nodded tolerantly. Leaning back, thumbs in his waistcoat-pockets, +swelling visibly, he was an offensive picture of self-satisfaction and +content. + +"You can't get away with it, Mr. Bayne," he declared impressively. +"You've taken on too much; I'm giving it to you straight. You can do a +lot with money and good clothes, and being born a gentleman and acting +like one, and having friends to help you; but you can't buck the +French Government and the French army and the French police. In a +little affair of this sort you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Even +your ambassador would turn you down cold. He wouldn't dare do anything +else. This is the last call for dinner in the dining-car, for you. +Last time I wanted to tell you the facts of the case you wouldn't +listen. Will you listen now?" + +I considered. + +"Yes," I said, "I'll listen. Go ahead!" + +He foundered for a moment, and then plunged in boldly. + +"About this young lady who's brought you and me to Bleau. Oh, you +needn't lift your eyebrows, much as to say, 'What young lady?' You +know she's here, and I know it; and she knows I've come and has put +her light out and is shaking in her shoes over there. I can swear to +that. Well, I want to tell you I never started out to get her; I just +stumbled across her on the steamer by a fluke. But I kept my eyes open +and I saw a lot of things; and when I got to Paris to-day I told them +at the /Prefecture/. You can see what they thought of the business by +my being here. I wasn't keen to come. I've got my own work to do. But +they want me to identify her; and they've sent three officers with me +--not policemen, you'll notice, because this is an army matter, and +before we make an end of it we'll be in the army zone." + +I don't know just what he saw in my eyes; but it seemed to bother him. +He fidgeted a little; as he approached the crucial point, his gaze +evaded mine. + +"Now, then, we'll come down to brass tacks, Mr. Bayne," said he. "I +don't know what kind of story the girl told you; but I know it wasn't +the truth or you wouldn't be here. That's sure. She's a German agent; +she's come to get the Germans some papers that they want about as bad +as anything under heaven. There's one man who tried the job already. +He got killed for his pains; but he hid the papers before he died, and +she knows where; and she's on her way to get them and carry the +business through. I don't say she hasn't plenty of courage. Why, she's +gone up against the whole of France; but I guess you're not very +anxious to be mixed up in this underhand, spying sort of matter, eh?" + +My hands were doubling themselves with automatic vigor. I wanted-- +consumedly--to knock the fellow down. However, I controlled myself. + +"What's your offer?" I asked. + +"It's this." He was obviously relieved, positively swelling in his +tolerant, good-humored patronage. "I said once before I was sorry for +you, and that still goes; we won't be hard on you if we have got the +whip-hand, Mr. Bayne. You just stay in your room to-morrow until she's +gone and we're gone, and you needn't be afraid your name will ever +figure in this thing. I've made it all right with my friends in the +next room. They know a pretty girl can fool a man sometimes, and +they've got a soft spot for Americans, like all the Frenchies here. +Take it from me, you'd better draw out quietly, instead of being +arrested, tried, shot, or imprisoned maybe--or being sent home with an +unproved charge hanging over you, and having all your friends fight +shy of you as a suspected pro-German. Isn't that so?" + +"You certainly," I agreed, "draw a most uninviting picture. I'll have +to consider this, Mr. Van Blarcom, if you'll give me time?" + +"Sure!" with his hearty response. "Take as long as you like to think +it over; I know how you'll decide. You don't belong in a thing like +this anyhow; you never did. It's bound to end in a nasty mess for all +concerned. There's a train goes to Paris to-morrow morning at eleven. +You just take it, sir, and forget this business, and you'll thank me +all your life." + + + +CHAPTER XV + +GEORGES THE CHAUFFEUR + +Upon descending to the courtyard, I took a seat on a bench beneath a +vine-covered trellis. To stop here for a time, smoking, would seem a +natural proceeding, and while I held such a post of recognizance +nothing overt could transpire in the environs without my taking note +of the fact. Enough had developed already, though, heaven was witness! +I lit a cigarette and prepared for a resume. + +Like a sleuth noting salient points, I glanced round the rectangular +court. At my right, off the gallery, was Miss Falconer's room shrouded +in darkness; at the left, up another flight of stairs, my own +uninviting domain. The quarters of Van Blarcom and his uniformed +friends opened from the gallery above the street passage, facing the +main portion of the inn which sheltered the kitchen and /salle a +manger/. Such was the simple, homely stage-setting. What of the play? + +Bleau, I now felt tolerably sure, was merely a mile-stone on the route +of Miss Falconer. Next morning, at sunrise probably, she would resume +her journey for parts unknown. Would they arrest her before she left +the inn or merely follow her? The latter, doubtless, since they +asserted that she was on her way to get the papers that they wanted +for France. + +Upstairs in the room where Van Blarcom and I had held our conference +the shutters had been reopened. There was just one light to be seen, a +glowing point, which was obviously the tip of a cigar. If I was +keeping vigil below, from above he returned the compliment; nor did he +mean that I should hold any secret colloquy with the girl that night. +I swore softly, but earnestly. Considering his rather decent attitude, +his efforts from the very first to enlighten me as to the dangers I +was running, it was odd that my detestation of the man was so +thoroughly ingrained and so profound. + +The mystery of the gray car had been solved with a vengeance. Instead +of being freighted with accomplices, as I had at first thought +possible, it had carried the representatives of justice, in the +persons of three officers and my secret-service friend. A queer +conjunction, that; but then, my ignorance of French methods was +abysmal. Perhaps this was the usual mode of doing things in time of +war. + +Van Blarcom's explanation, though it made me furious, had brought +conviction. There was a certain grim appositeness about it all. The +night in New York, the events of the steamer, the unsatisfactory +character of the girl's actions, all fitted neatly into the plan; and +the mere personnel of the pursuing party was sufficient assurance, for +French officers, as I well knew, were neither liars nor fools. +Neither, I patriotically assumed, were the men of my country's secret- +service, however humble their part as cogs in that great machinery, or +however distasteful Mr. Van Blarcom, personally, might be to me. And +finally, I could not deny that women, clever, well-born, and +beautiful, had served as spies a thousand times in the world's +history, urged to it by some sense of duty, some tie of blood. + +Yes, that was it, I told myself in sudden pity, recalling how Miss +Falconer had stood on the steps in her nurse's costume, straight and +slender, her gray eyes full of fire, her face glowing like a rose. +Perhaps she was of the enemy's country. Perhaps those she loved, those +who made up her life, had set her feet in this path that she was +treading. If she was a spy,--Lord! How the mere word hurt one!--it +wasn't for ignoble motives; it wasn't for pay. + +I came impulsively to the conclusion that there was just one course +for my taking: to see her and to beg, bully, or wheedle from her the +unvarnished truth. Then, if it was as I feared, she should go back to +Paris if I had to carry her; she should accompany me to Bordeaux, and +on the first steamer she should sail from France. Yes; and the army +should have its papers, for she should tell me where they were hidden. +Her work should end; but these men upstairs should not track her and +trap her and drag her off to prison, perhaps to death. + +There was danger in the plan, even if I should accomplish it. I should +get myself into trouble, dark and deep. Well, if I had to languish +behind bars for a while I could survive it. But she might not. As I +thought of this I knew that I had made up my mind irrevocably. + +It was a problem, nevertheless, to arrange an interview, with Van +Blarcom sitting at his window, watching me like a lynx. I couldn't go +up the stairs and batter on her door till she opened it; apart from +the reception she would give me it would simply amount to making a +present of my intentions to the men across the way. Yet who knew how +long they would keep up their surveillance? Till I retired, probably! +"I'd give something to choke you and be done with it!" was the +benediction I wafted toward the sentinel above. + +I was owning myself at my wit's end when a ray of hope was vouchsafed +me. The kitchen door opened and let out a leather-clad figure which +strode across the courtyard, lantern in hand, and let itself into the +garage. Despite the dimness, I recognized Miss Falconer's chauffeur, +the man she had addressed as Georges when they left the rue St.- +Dominique. The very link I needed, provided I could get into +communication with him in some unostentatious way. + +I rose, stretched myself lazily, and began to pace the court. Perhaps +a dozen times I crossed and recrossed it, each turn taking me past the +garage and affording me a brief glance within. The chauffeur, coat +flung aside, sleeves rolled up, was hard at work overhauling his +engine, with an obvious view to efficiency upon the morrow. Up at the +window I could see the glowing cigar-tip move now to this side, now to +that. Not for an instant was Van Blarcom allowing me to escape from +sight. + +After taking one more turn I halted, yawned audibly for the sentry's +benefit, and seated myself once more, this time on a bench by the door +of the garage. Van Blarcom's cigar became stationary again. The +chauffeur, who had satisfied himself as to the engine and was now +passing critical fingers over the gashes in the tires, looked up at me +casually and then resumed his work. Kneeling there, his tools about +him, he was plainly visible in the light of the smoky lantern. He was +a young man, twenty-three or-four perhaps, strongly built and +obviously of French-peasant stock, with honest blue eyes and a face +not unduly intelligent, but thoroughly frank and open in the cast. The +actors in my drama, I had to own, were puzzling. This lad looked no +more fitted than Miss Falconer for a treacherous role. + +How theatrical it all was! And yet it had its zest. I confess I +experienced a certain thrill, entirely new to me, as I bent forward +with my arms on my knees and my head lowered to hide my face. + +"/Attention, Georges!/" I muttered beneath my breath. + +The chauffeur started, knocking a tool from the running-board beside +him. His eyes, half-startled, half-fierce, fixed themselves on me; his +hand went toward his pocket in a most significant way. In a minute he +would be shooting me, I reflected grimly. And upstairs the very +stillness of Van Blarcom shrieked suspicion; he could not have helped +hearing the clatter that the falling tool had made. + +"Don't be a fool," I muttered, low, but sharply. "I know where you and +mademoiselle come from; I know she is upstairs now; if I wished you +any harm I could have had the mayor and the gendarmes here an hour +ago! Keep your head--we are being watched. Have a good look at me +first if you feel you want to. Then take your hand off that revolver +and pretend to go to work." + +Throwing my head back, I began blowing clouds of smoke, wondering +every instant whether a bullet would whiz through my brain. I could +feel Georges' gaze upon me; I knew it was a critical moment. But as +his kind are quick, shrewd judges of caste and character, I had my +hopes. + +They were justified; for presently I heard him draw a breath of +relief. His hand came out of his pocket. + +"Pardon, Monsieur," he whispered, and began a vigorous pretense of +polishing the car. + +Again I leaned forward to hide the fact that my lips were moving. + +"When you speak to me, keep your head bent as I do." + +"Monsieur, yes." + +"Now listen. Men of the French army are here, with powers from the +police. They accuse mademoiselle of serious things, of acts of +treason, of being on her way to secure papers for the foes of France. +They are watching. To-morrow, if she departs, they mean to follow and +to arrest her when they have gained proof of what she is hunting." + +"/Mon Dieu, Monsieur!/ What shall I do?" + +There was appeal in his voice. Convinced of my good faith, he was +quite simply shifting the business to my shoulders--the French peasant +trusting the man he ranked as of his master's class. And oddly enough +I found myself responding as if to a trusted person. I smoked a +little, wondering whether Van Blarcom could catch the faint mutter of +our voices. Then I gave my orders in the same muffled tones: + +"You will tell the servants that you wish to sleep here to-night, to +watch the car. You will stay here very quietly until it is nearly +dawn. Then you will creep to mademoiselle's door and whisper what I +have told you and say that I beg her to meet me before those others +have awakened at five o'clock in--" + +Pondering a rendezvous, I hesitated. The room where I had dined, with +its stone floor, its beamed ceiling, and dark panels, came first to my +mind. I fancied, though, that some outdoor spot might be safer. I +remembered opportunely that a passage led past this room, and that at +its end I had glimpsed a little garden behind the inn. + +"In the garden," I finished, and risked one straight look at him. "I +can trust you, Georges?" + +The young man's throat seemed to close. + +"/Monsieur le duc/ was my foster-brother, /Monsieur/," he whispered. +"I would die for him." + +Who the deuce /monsieur le duc/ might be I did not tarry to discover. +I had done all I could; the future was on the knees of the gods. +Having smoked one more cigarette for the sake of verisimilitude, I +rose, stretched myself ostentatiously, and crossed the courtyard to +the stairs, where madame was descending. She had, she informed me, +been preparing my bed. + +"And I wish monsieur good repose," she ended volubly. "Hitherto, no +Zeppelins have come to Bleau to disturb our dreams. Though, alas, who +knows what they will do, now that we have lost our most gallant hero? +Monsieur has heard of the Firefly of France, he who is missing?" + +That name again! Odd how it seemed to pursue me. + +"I believe I shall meet that fellow sometime if he's living," I +reflected as I climbed the stairs. + +In my room, my candle lighted, I resigned myself to a ghastly night. I +don't like discomfort, though I can put up with it when I must. The +bed looked as hard as nails; the bowl made cleanliness a duty, not a +pleasure. And to think that I might have been sleeping in comfort at +the Ritz! + +Tossing from side to side, pounding a cast-iron pillow, I dozed +through uneasy intervals, and woke with groans and starts. I could not +rid myself of the sense of something ominous hanging over me. The gray +car ramped through my dreams; so did Van Blarcom; and between sleeping +and waking, I pictured my coming interview with the girl, her probable +terror, the force and menaces I should have to use, our hurried +flight. + +At length I fell into a heavy, exhausted slumber, from which, toward +morning I fancied, I sat up suddenly with the dazed impression of some +sound echoing in my ears. Springing out of bed, I groped my way to the +window. The galleries lay peaceful and empty in the moonlight, and +down in the courtyard there was not the slightest sign of life. + +I went back to bed in a state of jangled nerves. Again I dozed, and a +dim light was creeping through the window when I woke. I looked out +again. + +"Hello!" I muttered, for though the hotel seemed wrapped in slumber, +the door of the garage now stood ajar. Was it possible that Miss +Falconer had stolen a march on me, that the automobile could have left +the premises without my being roused? It was only four o'clock, but +all wish for sleep had left me. I decided to investigate without any +more ado. + +I made the best toilet that cold water and a cracked mirror permitted, +longing the while for a bath, for a breakfast tray, for a hundred +civilized things. Taking my hat and coat, I went quietly down the +staircase. The garage door beckoned me, and all unprepared, I walked +into the tragedy of the affair. + +In the dim place there were signs of a desperate struggle. The rugs +and cushions of Miss Falconer's automobile were scattered far and +wide. The gray car had vanished; and in the center of the floor was +Georges, the chauffeur, lying on his back with arms extended, staring +up at the ceiling with wide, unseeing blue eyes. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"I MUST GO ON" + +Kneeling by the young man's side, I felt for his pulse; but the moment +that my fingers touched his cold wrist I knew the truth. There flashed +into my mind queerly, as things do at grim moments, an often-heard +expression about rigor mortis setting in. With this poor fellow it had +not started, but he was dead for all that. The most skilful surgeon in +Europe could not have helped him now. + +I never doubted that it was murder. The confusion of the garage was +proof of it; and the instrument, once I looked about me, was not far +to seek. Divided between rage, horror, and pity, I saw a sort of sharp +stiletto suitable for use as a penknife or letter opener, which, after +doing its work, had been cast upon the floor. + +I remained on my knees beside the lad, smitten with a keen remorse. I +knew no good of him; I had even suspected him; but he had an honest +face. Why had I not kept watch all night? The instructions I had +given, the plan I had thought so clever, might be responsible for the +killing; it must have been some echo of the struggle that had roused +me when I had wakened and glanced out and gone placidly back to sleep. + +Had Van Blarcom caught our whispered colloquy, or surmised it? Helped +by his precious colleagues, he must have taken Georges unprepared, +throttled him to prevent his shouting, and ended his frantic struggles +with one swift, ruthless blow. But why? What sort of soldiers could +these be who wore the uniform of a brave, chivalrous country and yet +did murder? What sort of mission were they bound upon that for no +visible gain or motive they risked desperate work like this? + +And the girl upstairs? The thought was like a knife thrust; it brought +me to my feet, my heart pounding, my forehead cold and wet. I told +myself that she must be safe, that wholesale killing could not be the +aim of these wretches, that the gray automobile was not what our one- +cent sheets in their tales of gunmen like to call a "murder car." But +what did I know about it? I was in a funk, a funk of the bluest +variety. In that one age-long moment I learned what sheer fright +meant. + +Without knowing how I got there, I found myself in the gallery. The +doors that lined it were rickety and worm-eaten; I stared weakly at +them. A mere twist of practised fingers, and they could be forced open +by any one who cared to try. I thought I heard a faint breathing +inside the girl's room, but I was not sure; I was too rattled. Very +guardedly I knocked and got no answer. Then, in utter panic, I knocked +louder, at risk of disturbing the whole house. + +"Georges, /c'est vous/?" It was the drowsiest of murmurs, but few +things have been so welcome to me in all my life. + +"Yes, Mademoiselle." Though my knees were wobbling under me I summoned +presence of mind to impersonate the poor huddled mass of flesh in the +garage. + +"/Attendez donc!/" + +I could hear her stirring; she believed I had come with some summons, +with some news. Well, it was imperative that I should see her. I +waited obediently until the door swung open and revealed her in a +loose robe of blue, with her hair in a ruddy mass about her shoulders +and the sleep still lingering in her eyes. + +"Mr. Bayne!" + +Such was my relief at finding my fears uncalled for that I could have +danced a breakdown on that crazy gallery, snapping my fingers in +castanet fashion above my head. I had forgotten entirely the strained +terms of our parting; but she remembered. A bright wave of scarlet ran +over her face, her neck, her forehead. She gasped, clutched her robe +about her, would have shut the door if I had not foreseen the +strategic movement and inserted a foot in the diminishing crack, just +in time. + +"I beg your pardon," I began hastily. "I am really extremely sorry. +But something has occurred that forces me to speak to you." + +"There can be nothing that forces you to come here--nothing!" Her lips +were trembling; her voice wavered; the apparent shamelessness of my +behavior was driving her to the verge of tears. "Is there no place +where I am safe from you? Mr. Bayne, how can you? I shan't listen to a +single word while you keep your foot in the door!" + +"And I can't take it away until you listen," I protested. "It is +perfectly obvious that if I did, you would shut me out. But you can +see for yourself that I'm not trying to force an entrance--and I wish +that you would speak lower; if we waken anybody, there will be the +mischief to pay." + +My voice, I suppose, had an impatient note that was reassuring, or +perhaps I looked encouragingly respectable, viewed at closer range. At +any rate, she spoke less angrily, though she still stood erect and +haughty. + +"Well, what is it?" she asked, barring the opening with one slender +arm. + +"May I ask if you have had a message from me, Miss Falconer?" + +"A message? Certainly not!" There was renewed suspicion in her voice. + +"H'm." Then they had intercepted the man before he reached her. "I'm +going to ask you to dress as quickly and quietly as possible and come +downstairs. Don't stop in the court, and don't go near the garage, I +beg of you. Just walk on past the /salle a manger/ to the garden, and +wait for me." + +I expected exclamations, questions, indignant protests, anything but +the sudden white calm that fell on her at my request. + +"You mean," she whispered, "that something dreadful has happened. Is +it about the--the men who came last night?" + +"Yes. But please don't worry," I urged with false heartiness. "I'll +explain when you come down." To cut the discussion short, I turned to +go. + +Once her door had closed, however, I halted at the staircase, retraced +my steps, and, without hesitation, circled the gallery to the rooms of +Mr. John Van Blarcom and his friends. I had had enough of +uncertainties; henceforth I meant to deal with facts. It was barely +possible that I was unjustly anathematizing these gentlemen, that, +while they were peacefully sleeping, thieves had broken in below. + +Two knocks, the first rather tentative, the second brisker, netting no +response, I deliberately tried the knob and felt the door promptly +yield to me; then, with equal deliberation, I dropped my hand into my +pocket where my revolver lay. If some one sprang at me and tried to +crack my head or stab me,--stabbing was popular hereabouts,--I was in +a state of armed preparedness. But when I stepped inside I found an +empty room, a bed in which no one had slept. + +Grown brazen, I strode across to the inner door and opened it. More +emptiness greeted me; the four men had plainly taken French leave in +their gray car. It was strange that the hum of their departure had not +roused me; they must, before starting the motor, have pushed their +automobile from the courtyard and out of ear-shot down the street. + +For a moment I stood in the deserted room, reflecting swiftly. The +situation was desperate; in another hour the inn would be stirring, +and Miss Falconer, I felt sure, could not afford to be found here when +that came to pass. Murder investigations are searching things. All +strangers beneath this roof would be interrogated narrowly. If any one +had a secret,--and she certainly had several,--the chances were heavy +that it would be dragged to light. + +For some reason this prospect was unspeakably frightful to me. Under +its spur I hatched the craziest scheme that man ever thought of, and +took steps which, as I look back at them, seem almost beyond belief. I +must get Miss Falconer off for Paris, I determined. And since it was +possible that the villagers would see us leaving, she must appear to +go, as she had come, with her chauffeur. + +I descended, forthwith, to the garage where the murdered man was +lying, shook out and folded the rugs that had been scattered in the +struggle, picked up the cushions, and replaced them in the car. Then, +borrowing a ruse from the enemy, I set the door wide open, and, +puffing and panting, pushed the blue automobile into the courtyard, +through the passage, and a considerable distance down the street. + +What comes next, I ask no one to credit. Retrospectively, I myself +have doubted it. It lives in my memory as a grisly nightmare rather +than as a fact. To be brief, I returned to the scene of the crime, +shut out any possible audience by closing the door, and disrobed +hastily. Then I removed the leather costume of the victim, donned it, +laced on his boots, which by good fortune were loose instead of tight, +and, picking up his visored cap from the floor where it had fallen, +stood forth to all seeming as genuine a member of the proletariate as +ever wore goggles and held a wheel. + +By this time my teeth were clenched as if in the throes of lockjaw. +Had I paused to think for a single instant, all my nerve would have +oozed away. But I had no time to spend on thought; I had to work on, +to save Miss Falconer. The whole ghoulish business would be futile if +the inn servants found the body. The mere flight of all the guests +would certainly stir suspicion; let the murder transpire as well, and +at once we should be pursued. + +The garage, from the looks of it, was not often put to service. A +dusty spot, festooned with cobwebs, it cried to the skies for brooms +and mops. In the background, apparently undisturbed since the days of +the First Empire, a great pile of straw mixed with junk of various +kinds lay against the wall; and most reluctantly, my every fiber +shrieking protest, I saw what use I might make of this debris--if I +could. + +"Go for it!" I told myself inexorably, but miserably. "It's not a +question of liking it, you know. You've got to do it." Grimly I +wrapped my discarded clothes about the poor chap's body, dragged it to +the straw, and covered it from head to foot. By this action, I +surmised, I was rendering myself a probable accessory and a certain +suspect; but the one thing I really cared about was my last glimpse of +that patient face. + +"Sorry, old man," was all the apology I could muster. "And if I ever +get a chance at the people who did it, you can count on me!" + +With a sigh of complete exhaustion, I rose and looked about. All signs +of the crime had been obliterated from the garage. "I must be crazy!" +I thought, as the enormity of the thing rushed on me. "I wonder why I +did it? And I wonder whether I can forget it some day--maybe after +twenty years?" + +As I opened the door to the garden the dim light was growing clearer. +I was late; the girl, coated and hatted, ready for flitting, was +already at the rendezvous. At sight of me in my leather togs she +started backward; then, resolutely controlled, she drew herself up and +faced me silently, her hands clutching at her furs, her lips a little +apart. + +"Won't you sit down?" I began lamely, indicating an iron bench. It was +all so different from the interview I had planned last night! "I want +to speak to you about your chauffeur, Miss Falconer. This morning I +found him hurt--very badly hurt--" + +She drove straight through my pretense. + +"Not dead? Oh, Mr. Bayne, not dead?" + +"Yes," I said gently. "He had been dead some time. I would have liked +to take my chances with him; but I came too late. No, please!" She had +moved forward, and I was barring her passage. "You mustn't go. You +can't help him, and you wouldn't like the sight." + +How black her eyes were in her white face! + +"I don't understand," she faltered. "You mean that he was murdered? +But who would have killed Georges?" + +"The men who came last night--if you can call them men. At least, +appearances point that way," I said. + +"The men in the gray car?" She swayed a little. "But why?" + +"I'm afraid I can't tell you that." My tone was grim; there were so +many things about this matter that I couldn't tell. + +Her eyes flashed for an instant. + +"But how cowardly, how cruel! He never hurt anyone; he was just like a +good watchdog, the truest, most faithful soul! If they killed him they +did it for some deliberate purpose. And when I think that I brought +him here--oh, oh, Mr. Bayne--" + +"Yes," I broke in hastily; "I should like to see them boil in oil or +fry on gridirons or something of the sort, myself. But this is very +serious; we must keep calm, Miss Falconer. And I know you are going to +help me. You have such splendid self-control." + +Though there were sobs in her throat, she pressed her hands to her +lips and stifled them. Only her pallor and her wet lashes showed the +horror and grief she felt. I wanted desperately to comfort her, but +there was no time for it; and besides, who ever heard of a leather- +coated comforter in a kitchen garden at 5 A.M.? + +"What I wanted to speak about," I went on rapidly, "was our plans. +This may prove a rather nasty mess, I'm sorry to say. The French +police, you know, are--well, they're capable and very thorough; and +since you are here at the scene of a murder in an /infirmiere's/ +costume, they will never rest till they have seen your papers, learned +your errand, asked you a hundred things. Unless your replies are +absolutely satisfactory, the whole business will be--er--awkward for +you. That is why I put on these togs. Yes, I know it is ghastly," I +owned as she shuddered. "And that is why I want to beg you, very +seriously indeed, to let me drive you back to Paris and put you under +your friends' protection. After that, of course, I'll return here to +see the thing through and give my testimony about it all." + +It was not going to be so simple, the course I had outlined airily. +When I visioned myself explaining to a French /commissaire/ why I had +come to Bleau at all; why I had set up a false claim to be an artist, +--for that circumstance was sure to leak out and look darkly +incriminating,--and what had inspired me to take a murdered man's +clothes and conceal his body, I can't pretend that I felt much zest. +Still, if the police and the girl came together, worse would follow, I +was certain; and it seemed like a real catastrophe when she slowly +shook her head. + +"I can't," she murmured. "Oh, it's kind of you, and I'm sorry; but I +can't go back to Paris--not yet, Mr. Bayne. You won't understand, of +course, but I left there to--to accomplish something. And since poor +Georges can't help me now, I must go on--alone." + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +I BURN MY BRIDGES + +If I live to be a hundred, and it is not improbable since I am +healthy, I shall never forget that little garden at the inn at Bleau. +It was a vegetable garden too, which is not in itself romantic. I +recall vaguely that there were beds all about us, which in due course +would doubtless sprout into rows of pale green objects--peas and +artichokes, or beans and cabbages maybe; I don't know, I am sure. But +then, there was the stream running just outside the wall of masonry; +there was the sky, flushing with that faint, very delicate, very +lovely pink that an early spring morning brings in France; there was +the quaint building, wrapped up in slumber, beside us; and in the air +a silent, fragrant dimness, the promise of the dawn. + +And then there was the girl. I suppose that was the main thing. Not +that I felt sentimental. I should have scouted the notion. If I meant +to fall in love,--which, I should have said, I had no idea of doing,-- +I would certainly not begin the process in this unheard-of spot. No; +it was simply that the whole business of caring for Miss Esme Falconer +had suddenly devolved upon my shoulders; and that instead of my +feeling bored, or annoyed, or exasperated at the prospect, my spirits +rose inexplicably to face the need. + +Here, if ever, was the time for the questions I had planned last +evening. But I didn't ask them; I knew I should never ask them. In +those few long unforgetable moments when I stood in the gallery and +wondered whether she were living, my point of view had altered. I was +through with suspecting her; I was prepared to laugh at evidence, +however damning. As for the men in the gray car and their detailed +accusations, I didn't give--well, a loud outcry in the infernal +regions for them. I knew the standards of the land they served, and I +had seen their work this morning. If they were French officers, I +would do France a service by going after them with a gun. + +The girl had sunk down on the ancient bench beside me. Her eyes, wide +and distressed, yet resolute, went to my heart. Not a figure, I +thought again, for this atmosphere of intrigue and secrecy and danger. +Rather a girl, beautiful, brilliant, spirited, to be shielded from +every jostle of existence; the sort of girl whom men hold it a test of +manhood to protect from even the most passing discomfiture! + +But time was moving apace. We must settle on something in short order. +I spoke in the most matter-of-fact tones that I could summon, not, +heaven knows, out of a feeling of levity concerning what had happened, +but to try to lighten the grim business a degree or so and keep us +sane. + +"I think, Miss Falconer," I began, standing before her, "that we have +got to thrash this matter out at last. You think I've behaved +unspeakably, trailing you everywhere, and I don't deny I have, +according to your point of view. But the fact is, I didn't follow you +to annoy you; I'm a half-way decent fellow. You have simply got to +trust me until I've seen you through this tangle. After that, if you +like you need never look at me again." + +Her troubled eyes rested on me, half bewildered. + +"Why, I'd forgotten all that," she murmured. "I do trust you, Mr. +Bayne. Of course I must have misunderstood you to some way last +evening, and I'm afraid I was disagreeable." + +"Naturally. You had to be. Now, if that's all right and I'm forgiven, +may I ask a question? About those men who arrived last night and +apparently killed your chauffeur--can you guess who they are?" + +"Yes," she faltered, looking down at the pebbled walk. "They must have +been sent by the Government or the army or the police. If the French +knew what I was doing, they wouldn't understand my motives. I've been +afraid from the first that they would learn." + +Another of my precious theories was going up in smoke. Not seeing why +a set of bonafide officers should gratuitously murder a chauffeur, I +had been wondering whether the quartet might not be impostors, tricked +out in uniforms to which they had no claim. Still, of course, I +couldn't judge. If she would only confide in me! I was fairly aching +to help her; yet how could I, in this blindfold way? + +"I don't wish to be impertinent," I ventured at length, meekly, "and I +give you my word I'm not trying to find out anything you don't want me +to. Only, assuming I've got some sense,--in case you care to be so +amiable,--I'd like to put it at your service. Do you think you could +give me just a vague outline of your plans?" + +She looked at me in a piteous, uncertain manner. I braced myself for a +"No." Then, suddenly, she seemed to decide to trust me--in sheer +desperate loneliness, I dare say. + +"I am going," she whispered, "to a village in the war zone--where +there is a chateau. There are things in it--some papers; at least I +believe there are. It is just a chance, just a forlorn hope; but it +means all the world to certain people. I have to act in secret till I +have succeeded, and then every one in France, every one on earth may +know all that I have done!" + +If I had not burned my bridges, this announcement might have worried +me; it was too vague, and what little I grasped tallied startlingly +with Van Blarcom's rigmarole. However, having bowed allegiance, I +didn't blink an eyelid. + +"Yes," I said encouragingly. "Is it very far?" + +Her eyes went past me anxiously, watching the inn and its blank +windows, as she fumbled in her coat and brought forth a motor map. + +"Take it," she breathed, thrusting it toward me. "Look at it. Do you +see? The route in red!" + +As I realized the astounding thing I choked down an exclamation. +There, beneath my finger, lay the village of Bleau, a tiny dot; and +from it, straight into the war zone, the traced line ran through Le +Moreau and Croix-le-Valois and St. Remilly; ran to--what was the name? +I spelled it out: P-r-e-z-e-l-a-y. + +Though it was early in the game to be a wet blanket, I found myself +gasping. + +"But," I protested weakly, "you can't do that! It's in the war +country; it's forbidden territory. One has to have safe-conducts, +/laissez-passers/, all sorts of documents to get into that part of +France." + +"I didn't come unprepared," she answered stubbornly. "Before I started +I knew just what I should need. I can get as far as the hospital at +Carrefonds; and Carrefonds is beyond Prezelay, ten miles nearer to the +Front!" + +"But--" The monosyllable was distinctly tactless. + +She straightened, challenging me with brave, defiant eyes. + +"I know," she flashed. "You mean it looks suspicious. Well, it does; +and if I told you everything, it would look more suspicious still. You +shouldn't have followed me; when they learn that we both spent the +night here they will think you are my--my accomplice. The best advice +I can give you, Mr. Bayne, is to go away." + +"Perhaps we had better," I agreed stolidly. I had deserved the +outburst. "Shall we be off at once, before the servants come +downstairs?" + +She drew back, her eyes widening. + +"We?" she repeated. + +"Naturally!" I replied, with some temper. "I /must/ have disgusted you +last night. What sort of a miserable, spineless, cowardly, caddish +travesty of a man do you take me for, to think I would let you go +alone?" + +"Please don't joke," she urged. "It simply isn't possible. You would +get into trouble with the French Government, and--" + +"Do you know," I grinned, "it is rather exhilarating to snap one's +fingers at governments? Just see what success I made of it with Great +Britain and Italy, on the ship!" + +"You don't realize what you are laughing at," she pleaded. "It is +dangerous." + +"I won't disgrace you. I seldom tremble visibly, Miss Falconer, though +I often shake inside." + +Her great gray eyes were glowing mistily. + +"Mr. Bayne, this is splendid of you. I--I shall go on more bravely +because you have been so kind. But I won't let you make such a +sacrifice or mix in a thing that others may think disloyal, +treacherous. You know how it looks. Why, on the steamer and on the way +up to France and even last evening--you see I've guessed now why you +followed me--you didn't trust me yourself." + +"I know it," I confessed humbly. "I can't believe I was such an idiot. +Somebody ought to perform a surgical operation on my brain. I +apologize; I'm down in the dust; I feel like groveling. Won't you +forgive me? I promise you won't have to do it twice." + +This time it was she who said: "But--" and paused uncertainly. I could +see she was wavering, and I massed my horse, foot, and dragoons for +the attack. + +"You'll please consider me," I proclaimed firmly, "to be a tyrant. I +am so much bigger than you are that you can't possibly drive me off. I +don't mean to interfere or to ask questions, or to bother you. But I +vow I'm coming with you if I cling to the running-board!" + +Her lashes fluttered as she racked her brains for new protests. + +"The car is a French make," she urged,--"which you couldn't drive--" + +"I can drive any car with four wheels!" I exclaimed vaingloriously. +"It's kismet, Miss Falconer; it's the hand of Providence, no less. +Now, we'll leave these notes in the /salle a manger/ to pay for our +lodging, which would have been dear at twopence, and be off, if you +please, for Prezelay." + +She had yielded. We were standing side by side in the silence of the +morning, the dimness fading round us, the air taking a golden tinge. +My surroundings were plebeian; my costume was comic; yet I felt oddly +uplifted. + +"Jolly old garden, isn't it?" said I. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IN THE HIGH GEAR + +To pass straight from a humdrum, comfortable, conventionally ordered +life into a career of insane adventure is a step that is radical; but +it can be exhilarating, and I proved the fact that day. To dwell on +present danger was to forget the past hour in the garage, which I had +to forget or begin gibbering. Once committed to the adventure and away +from the scene of the murder, I found a positive relief in facing the +madness of the affair. + +While the girl sat silent and listless, blotted against the cushions, +rousing from her thoughts only to indicate the turns of the road, I +had time for cogitation; and I began to feel like a man who has drunk +freely of champagne. Hitherto I had been a law-abiding citizen. Now I +had kicked over the traces. Like the distinguished fraternity that +includes Raffles and Arsene Lupin, I should be "wanted" by the police, +those good-natured, deferential beings so given to saluting and +grinning, with whom, save for occasional episodes not unconnected with +the speed laws,--Dunny says libelously that my progress in an +automobile resembles a fabulous monster with a flying car for the +head, a cloud of smoke and gasoline for the body, and a cohort of +incensed motor-cycle men for the tail,--I had lived on the most +cordial terms. + +I was not certain whether they would accuse me of murder or espionage. +There were pegs enough, undeniably, on which to hang either charge. +Myself, I rather inclined to the latter; the case was so clear, so +detailed! My rush from Paris to Bleau,--in order, no doubt, that I +might at an unostentatious spot join forces with my confederate, Miss +Falconer, whom I had been meeting at intervals ever since we left New +York in company,--my behavior there, and the fashion in which we were +vanishing should suffice to doom me as a spy. + +When the French began tracing my movements, when they joined my +present activities to the fact that only by the skin of my teeth had I +escaped a charge of bringing German papers into Italy, there would be +the devil to pay. I acknowledged it; then--really, this brand-new, +unfounded, cast-iron trust of mine in Miss Falconer was changing me +beyond recognition--I recalled the old recipe for the preparation of +Welsh rabbit, and light-heartedly challenged the authorities to "catch +me first." I had a disguise; if I bore any superior earmarks my +leather coat obliterated them; and I could drive; even Dario Resta +could not have sniffed at my technic. Better still, my French, learned +even before my English, would not betray me. As nurse and as +/mecanicien/, we stood a fair chance in our masquerade. + +I might have to pay my shot, but I was enjoying it. This was a good +world through which we were speeding; life was in the high gear +to-day. The car purred beneath us like a splendid, harnessed tiger; +the spring air was fresh and fragrant, the country charming, with here +a forest, there a valley, farther off the tiled, colored roofs of some +little town. Our road, like a white ribbon, wound itself out endlessly +between stone walls or brown fields. In my content I forgot food and +such prosaic details till I noticed that the girl looked pale. + +"I say," I exclaimed remorsefully: "we've been omitting rolls and +coffee! I'm going to get you some at the first town we pass." + +"We are coming to a town now, to Le Moreau." She was looking anxious. + +"Yes? I'm afraid I don't place it exactly. Ought I to?" + +"It is the first town in the war zone. And--and our road passes +through it." + +"Oh!" I was enlightened. "Then they will probably ask to see our +papers at the /octroi/?" + +"Yes." + +The car was eating up the smooth white road; I could see the little +/octroi/ building at the town boundary-line, and a group of gendarmes +in readiness close by. It was a critical moment. Miss Falconer, I +recalled, had said she could get through to Carrefonds; but glittering +generalities were not likely to convince these sentries; one needed +safe-conducts, passes, identity cards, and such concrete aids. She +couldn't give a reasonable account of herself, I felt quite certain; +and even if she did, how was she to account for me? + +As I brought the car to a standstill, my conscience clamored, and my +costume seemed to shriek incongruity from every seam. In this dilemma +I trusted to sheer blind luck--a rather thrilling business. As a gray- +headed sergeant stepped forward to welcome us, I looked him +unfalteringly in the eye, though I wondered if he would not say: + +"Monsieur, kindly remove that childish travesty with which you are +trying to impose on justice. We know all about you. Your name is +Devereux Bayne. You are a German agent and intriguer; you have +smuggled papers; you have murdered a man and concealed his body. +Unless you can give a satisfactory explanation of all your actions +since leaving New York, your last hour has arrived!" + +What he really said was: + +"Mademoiselle's papers?" He spoke quite amiably, a catlike pretense, +no doubt. + +Miss Falconer was no longer looking anxious. Her hands were steady; +she was even smiling as she produced two neat little packets that, on +being unfolded, proved to have all the air of permits, /laissez- +passers/, and police cards. Two nondescript photographs, which might +have represented almost any one, adorned them, and of these our +sergeant made a perfunctory survey. + +"Mademoiselle's name," he recited in a high singsong, "is Marie Le +Clair. She is a nurse, on her way to the hospital at Carrefonds. And +this is Jacques Carton, who is her chauffeur?" + +A singularly stupid person, on the whole, he must have thought me, +hardly fit to be trusted with so superb a car. My mouth, I fancy, was +wide open; I can't swear that I wasn't pop-eyed. This last development +had complete addled me. Marie Le Clair! Jacques Carton! Who were they? + +"I wish," I remarked into the air as we drove on, "that some one would +pinch me--hard." + +She smiled faintly. Now it was over, she looked a little tremulous. + +"Oh, no," she answered, "we were not dreaming. Poor Georges! I wish we +were!" + +Such was the incredible beginning of our adventure. And as it began, +so it continued. We breakfasted at Le Moreau. Miss Falconer ate in the +dining-room of the small hotel; I sought the kitchen and, warmed by +our late success, I did not shrink from playing my role. Then we +resumed our journey, and though we showed our papers twenty times at +least as the control grew stricter, they were never challenged. I +rubbed my eyes sometimes. Surely I should wake up presently! We +couldn't be here in the forbidden region, in the war zone, plunging +deeper every instant, in peril of our lives. + +Yet the proof was thick about us. In the towns we passed we saw troops +alight from the trains and enter them; we saw farewells and reunions, +the latter sometimes tearful, but the former invariably brave. We saw +/depots/ where trucks and ambulances and commissary carts were filled, +and canteens and soup kitchens where soldiers were being fed. At +Croix-le-Valois we saw the air turn black with the smoke of the +munition factories that were working day and night. At St. Remilly +above the towers of the old chateau we saw the Red Cross flying, and +on the terraces the reclining figures of wounded men. It seemed +impossible that sight-seers and pleasure-seekers had thronged along +this road so lately. The signs of the Touring Club of France, posted +at intervals, were survivals of an era that was now utterly gone. + +With the coming of afternoon, the country grew still more beautiful. +Orchards were thick about us, though the trees were leafless now. The +little thatched cottages had odd fungi sprouting from their roofs like +rosy mushrooms; the trees and streams had a silvery shimmer, like a +Corot fairy-land. + +Then, set like sign-posts of desolation in this loveliness, came the +ravaged villages. We were on the soil where in the first month of the +war the Germans had trod as conquerors, and where, step by step, the +French had driven them back. We passed Cormizy, burnt to the ground to +celebrate its taking; Le Remy, where the heroic mayor had died, +transfixed by twenty bayonets; Bar-Villers, a group of ruined houses +about a mourning, shattered church. It was the region where the Hun +triumph had spoken aloud, unbridled. Miss Falconer sat white and +silent as we drove through it; my hands tightened on the wheel. + +We had lunched at Tolbiac, late and abominably. Then, leaving the +highway, we had taken a country road. Two punctures befell us; once +our carburetor betrayed the trust we placed in it. By the time these +deficiencies were remedied I had collected dust and grease enough to +look my part. + +It had been, by and large, a singularly speechless day, which my +spasmodic efforts at entertainment had failed to cheer. The girl tried +to respond, but her eyes were strained, eager, shadowed; her answers +came at random. My talk, I suppose, teased her ears like the +troublesome buzzing of a fly. + +"She is thinking," I decided at last, "about those papers. Lord, if +she doesn't find them she is going to take it hard!" + +I left her in peace after that and drove the faster. Luck was with us! +At the end of our journey everything would be all right. + +As evening settled down on us the road grew increasingly lonely. Woods +of oak-trees were about us, their trunks mossy, their branches lacing; +on our left was a narrow river thick with rushes and smooth green +stones. So rutty was the earth that our wheels sank into it and our +engine labored. There was a charming sylvan look about the scenery; we +seemed to be alone in the universe: I could not recall when we had +last seen a peasant or passed a hut. + +Suddenly I realized that there was a sound in the distance, not +continuous, but steadily recurrent, a faint booming, I thought. + +"What's that noise off yonder?" I asked, with one ear cocked toward +the east. + +Miss Falconer roused herself. + +"It is the cannonading," she answered. "We have come a long way, Mr. +Bayne. In two hours--in less than that--we could drive to the Front. +And see!" + +The dark was coming fast; a crimson sunset was reddening the river. A +little below us on the opposite bank, I saw what had been a village +once upon a time. But some agency of destruction had done its work +there; blackened spaces and heaped stones and the shells of dwellings +rose tier on tier among trees that seemed trying to hide them; only on +the crest of the bank, overlooking the wreck like a gloomy sentinel, +one building loomed intact, a dark, scarred, frowning castle with +medieval walls and towers. I stared at the scene of desolation. + +"The Germans again!" I said. + +"Yes," the girl assented, gazing across the water. "They came here at +the beginning of the war. They burned the houses and the huts and the +little church with the image of the Virgin and the tomb of the old +constable--all Prezelay except the chateau; and they only left that +standing to give their officers a home." + +With an automatic action of feet and fingers, I stopped the car. Here +was the town that she had shown me on the map that morning when we sat +like a pair of whispering conspirators in the garden of the Three +Kings. The obstacles which had seemed so great had melted away before +us. This ruined village, this heap of stones cross the river, was our +goal, the key to our mystery, the last scene of our drama--Prezelay. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE CASTLE AT PREZELAY + +In the midst of my triumph, which was as intense as if I myself, +instead of pure luck, had engineered our journey, I became aware of a +tiny qualm as I sat gazing across the stream. Perhaps the gathering +night affected me, or the air, which was growing chilly, or the +remnants of the village, which were cheerless, to say the least. But +that castle, perched so darkly on its crag, with a strip of blood-red +sky framing it, was at the heart of my feeling. If it had been a nice, +worldly-looking, well-kept chateau, with poplared walks and a formal +garden, I should have welcomed it with open arms; but it wasn't, +decidedly! It was the threatening age-blackened sort of place that +inevitably suggests Fulc of Anjou, strongholds on the Loire, marauding +barons, and the good old days with their concomitants of rapine and +robbery and death. + +It was picturesque, but it was intensely gloomy; the proper spot for a +catastrophe rather than a happy denouement. I was not impressionable, +of course; but now that I thought of it, our jaunt had been going with +a smoothness almost ominous. Could one expect such clock-like +regularity to run forever without a break? + +Take the utter disappearance of the gray car, for instance. That had +seemed to me reassuring; but was it? Those four men had cared enough +about Miss Falconer's movements to involve themselves in a murder. +Why, then, should they have given up the chase in so mysterious a way? + +And the girl herself! When I looked at her I felt horribly worried. +She was shivering through her furs; yet it was not with the cold, I +felt quite sure. With her hands clasped, she sat staring at that +confounded castle with a look of actual hunger. She cared too much +about this thing; she couldn't stand a great deal more. + +Well, she wouldn't have to, I concluded, my brief misgivings fading. +We were out of the woods; another hour would see the business closed. +As for the men in the car, they were victims of their guilty +consciences, were no doubt in full flight or hiding somewhere in +terror of the law. + +At any rate, there was no point in my sitting here like a graven +image; so I roused myself and wrapped the rugs closer about the girl. + +"I'm to drive to the chateau?" I inquired with recovered cheerfulness. +I had to repeat the words before they broke her trance. + +"Yes," she answered. Suddenly, impulsively, she turned toward me, her +face almost feverish, her eyes astonishingly large and bright. "I +haven't told you much," she acknowledged tremulously; "but you won't +think that I don't trust you. It is only that I couldn't talk of it +and keep my courage; and I must keep it a little longer--until we know +the truth." + +"That's quite all right, Miss Falconer." I was switching on the lamps. +Then I extinguished them; their clear acetylene glare seemed almost +weirdly out of place. "We can muddle along without any lights. Not +much traffic here," I muttered. I had a feeling, anyhow, that +unostentatiousness of approach might not be bad. + +There was intense silence about us; not even a breeze was stirring. A +thin crescent moon was out, silvering the river and the trees. The +road was atrocious; on one dark stretch the car, rocking into a rut, +jolted us viciously and brought my teeth together on the tip of my +tongue. + +"Sorry," I gasped, between humiliation and pain. + +With the silence and the dimness, we were like ghosts, the car like a +phantom. An old stone bridge seemed to beckon us, and we crossed to +the other side. There, at Miss Falconer's gesture, I drew the +automobile off the road at the edge of the town, halted it beneath +some trees, and helped her to alight. We started up the hill together +without a word. + +Two ghosts! More and more, as we climbed through the wreck and +desolation, that was what we seemed. The road was choked with stones +between which the grass was sprouting; there was nothing left of the +little church save a single pointed shaft. We climbed rapidly, the +girl always gazing up at the castle with that same feverish eagerness. +She had forgotten, I think, that I was there. + +At last we were coming to the hilltop and the chateau. Rather +breathless, I studied its looming walls, its turrets, its three round +towers. It looked dark and inexplicably menacing, but I had recovered +my form and could defy it. When we halted at a great iron-studded oak +gate and Miss Falconer pulled the bell-rope, I was astonished. It had +not occurred to me that the castle would be more inhabited than the +town. + +Nor was it, apparently; for no one answered its summons, though I +could hear the bell jingling faintly somewhere within. Miss Falconer +rang a second time, then a third; her face shone white in the +moonlight; she was growing anxious. + +"Did you think," I ventured finally, "that there was some one here?" + +"Yes; Marie-Jeanne," she answered, listening intently. Then she roused +herself. "I mean the /gardienne/. She never left, not even when the +Germans came. They made her cook for them; she said she had been born +in the keeper's lodge, and her grandfather before her, and that she +would rather die at Prezelay than go to any other place. But of course +she may have walked down the river for the evening. Her son's wife is +at Santierre, two miles off. She may be there." + +"That's it," I agreed hastily, the more hastily because I doubted. +"She's sitting over a fire, toasting her toes, and gossiping and +having a cup of tea, or whatever people like that use for an +equivalent in these parts." I suppressed the unwelcome thought that a +woman living here alone ran a first-rate chance of getting her throat +cut by strolling vagrants. "Shall we have to wait until she comes +back?" I asked. "Then let's sit down. I choose this stone!" + +On my last word, however, something surprising happened. Miss +Falconer, in her impatience, put a hand on the bolt of the gate, shook +it, and raised it, and, lo and behold! the oak frame swung open. +Before I quite realized the situation, we were inside, in a square +courtyard, with the /gardienne's/ lodge at the right of us, +impenetrably barred and shuttered, and before us the portal of the +castle, surmounted with quaint stone carvings of men in armor riding +prancing steeds. The court, as revealed by the moonlight, was intact, +but neglected. Weeds were sprouting between the square blocks of stone +that paved it, and in the center a wide circular space, charred and +blackened, showed where the German sentries had built their fires. It +was not cheerful, nor was it homey. I scarcely blamed Marie-Jeanne for +flitting. The faint sound of the cannonading had begun again in the +distance, but otherwise the place was as silent as a tomb. + +"It seems strange!" Miss Falconer murmured, looking about in puzzled +fashion. "Why in the world should she have left the gate open in this +careless way? Of course there is nothing here for thieves; the Germans +saw to that; but still, as keeper-- Oh, well, it doesn't matter. It +saves us from waiting till she comes home." + +As I followed her toward the castle entrance, she opened the bag she +carried, and produced a candle, which I hastened to take and light. I +nearly said, "The latest thing in the housebreaking line, madame, is +electric torches, not tapers"; but I decided not to. After all, +perhaps we were housebreakers. How could I tell? + +Hot candle wax splashed my fingers and scorched them, but I scarcely +noticed. My sense of high-gear adventure had reached its zenith now. +There was something thrilling, something stimulating in this stealthy +night entrance into a deserted castle. It was an experience, at all +events; there was no /concierge/ to stump before one through dim +passages and up winding staircases; no flood of dates and names and +anecdotes poured inexorably into one's bored ears to insure a +/douceur/ when the tour of the chateau should be done. + +The door--faithless Marie-Jeanne!--opened as readily as the outer +gate. We were entering. I glimpsed in a dim vista a superb Gothic hall +of magnificent architecture and most imposing proportions, arched and +carved and stretching off with apparent endlessness into the gloom. +Holding up my light, I scanned the place with growing interest. It had +not been demolished, but neither had it been spared. The furniture was +gone, save for a few scattered chairs and a table; the walls were +defaced with cartoons and scrawled inscriptions; the floor was +stained, and littered with empty bottles and broken plates. From the +chimney-place--a medieval-art jewel topped with carved and colored +enamels--pieces had been hacked away by some deliberately destructive +hand. I glanced at Miss Falconer, whose eyes had been following mine. + +"They tore down the tapestries," she said beneath her breath. "They +slashed the old portraits with their swords and broke the windows and +took away the statues and candlesticks and plate. They cut up the +furniture and had it used for fire-wood; and the German captain and +his officers had a feast here and drank to the fall of Paris and +ordered their soldiers to burn the village to the ground. Oh, I don't +like the place any more; too much has happened. And--and I don't like +Marie-Jeanne's not being here, Mr. Bayne. I feel as if there were +something wrong about it. I believe I am a little--just a little +afraid!" + +"Come, now, you don't expect me to believe that, do you?" I countered +promptly. "Because I won't. Why, it's your pluck that has kept me up +all day. Just the same, on general principles, I'll take a look round +if you'll allow me. Here's a chair, and if you will rest a minute, +I'll guarantee to find out." + +The chair I mentioned was standing near the chimney, and as I spoke I +walked over to it and started to spin it round. It resisted me +heavily; I bent over it, lifting my candle. Then I uttered an +exclamation, stood petrified, and stared. + +In the chair, concealed from us until now by the high carved back of +wood, was something which at first looked like a huddled mass of +garments, but which on closer scrutiny resolved itself into a woman in +a striped dress, an apron, and a pair of heavy shoes. There was a cut +on her cheek, a bruise on her forehead. Locks of graying hair +straggled from beneath her disarranged white cap, and she glared at me +from a lean, sallow face with a pair of terrified eyes. + +She must be dead, I thought. No living woman could sit so still and +stare so wildly. The scene in the inn garage rushed back upon me, and +I must say that my blood turned cold. But she was alive, I saw now; +she was certainly breathing. And an instant later I realized why she +stayed so immobile; she was bound hand and foot to the chair she sat +in, and a colored handkerchief, her own doubtless, had been twisted +across her mouth to form a gag. + +"I think," I head myself saying, "that we have been maligning Marie- +Jeanne." + +A choked, frightened cry from Miss Falconer made me wheel about +sharply, to find her staring not a me, but at the further wall. +Prepared now for anything under heaven, I followed her gaze. Above us, +circling the whole hall, there ran a gallery from which at a distance +of some fifteen feet from where we stood a wide stone staircase +descended; and half-way down this, as motionless as statues, as +indistinct as shadows, I saw four men in the uniform of officers of +France. + +For an uncanny moment I wondered whether they were specters. For a +stupid one, I thought they might be people whom the girl had come here +to meet. Still, if they were, she wouldn't be looking at them in this +paralyzed fashion. I could not see them plainly,--but they must be the +men from Bleau. + +"Well, Mr. Bayne," the foremost was asking, "did you think we had +deserted you? Not a bit of it! We came on ahead and rang up the old +woman there and commandeered her keys. We've been killing time here +for a good half hour, waiting for you. You must have had tire trouble. +And you don't seem very pleased to see us now that you've come--eh, +what?" + +At Bleau the previous night, I was recalling dazedly, there had been +only three men wearing the horizon blue. Who was this fourth figure, +who knew my name and spoke such colloquial English? I raised my candle +as high as possible and scanned him. Then I stood transfixed. + +"Van Blarcom!" I gasped. "And in a uniform, by all that's holy!" + +He grinned. + +"No. You haven't got that quite right," he told me. "What's the use +keeping up the game now that we're here, all friends together? My name +isn't Van Blarcom. It's Franz von Blenheim, Mr. Bayne. + + + +CHAPTER XX + +INTRODUCING HERR FRANZ VON BLENHEIM + +The words of Franz von Blenheim seemed to fill the hall and reecho +from the walls and arches, deafening me, leaving me stunned as if by +an earthquake or by a flash of lightning from clear skies. Yet I never +though of doubting them. Comatose as my state was, slowly as my brain +was working, I recognized vaguely how many features of the mystery, +both past and present, these words explained. + +It was odd, but never once had it occurred to me that Van Blarcom +might be a German. He himself, I began to realize, had taken care of +that. With considerable acumen he had filled every one of our brief +interviews with vigorous denunciations of somebody else, dark hints as +to intrigues that surrounded me and might enmesh me, and solemn +warnings and prudent counsels, which had brilliantly served his turn. +He had kept me so busy suspecting Miss Falconer--at the thought I +could have beaten my head against the wall in token of my abject shame +--that my doubts had never glanced in his direction; a most +humiliating confession, since I couldn't deny, reviewing the past in +this new light, that circumstances had afforded me every opportunity +to guess the truth. + +There was no time, however, for dwelling on my deficiencies. The next +half hour would be an uncommonly lively one, I felt quite sure. I +might call the thing bizarre, fantastic; I might dub it an +extravaganza; the fact remained that I was shut up in this lonely spot +with four entirely able-bodied Germans and must match wits with them +over some affair that apparently was of international consequence; for +if it had been a twopenny business, Herr von Blenheim, the star agent +of the kaiser, would never have thought it worth his pains. + +With all my fighting spirit rising to meet the odds against us, I cast +a speculative eye over the Teutons, who had now dissolved their group. +Van Blarcom himself--Blenheim, rather--descended in a leisurely +fashion while one of his friends, remaining on the staircase, fixed me +with a look of intentness almost ominous and the other two placed +themselves as if casually before the door. They were stalwart, well +set-up men, I acknowledged as I surveyed them. Though not bad at what +our French friends call /la boxe/, I was outnumbered. It was obviously +a case of strategy--but of what sort? + +A much defaced table, flanked with a few battered chairs, stood near +me, and with a premonition that I should want two hands presently, I +set my candle there. Then I drew a chair forward and turned to the +girl with outward coolness. + +"Please sit down, Miss Falconer," I invited. I wanted time. + +She inclined her head and obeyed me very quietly. She was not afraid; +I saw it with a rush of pride. As she sat erect, her head thrown back, +on gloved hand resting on the table, she was a picture of spirit and +steadiness and courage. If I had needed strength I should have found +it in the fact that her eyes, oddly darkened as always when her errand +was threatened did not rest on our captors, but turned toward me. + +"We'll all sit down," Franz von Blenheim agreed most amiably. It +evidently amused him to retain the late Mr. Van Blarcom's dialect and +air. "We can fix this business up in no time; so why not be sociable?" +He strolled to a chair and sank into it and motioned me to do the +same. + +"Thanks," I returned, not complying. "If you don't mind, I'd like +first to untie that woman. I confess to a queer sort of prejudice +against seeing women bound and gagged. In fact I feel so strongly on +the subject that it might spoil our whole conference for me." I took a +step toward the shadowy figure of Marie-Jeanne. + +Blenheim did not move, but his eyes seemed to narrow and darken. + +"Just leave her alone for the present. She is too fond of shrieking-- +might interrupt our argument," he declared. "And see here, Mr. Bayne," +he added, warned by my manner, "I want to call your attention to the +gentleman on the stairs, my friend Schwartzmann. He's a crack shot, +none better, and he has got you covered. Hadn't you better sit down +and have a friendly chat?" + +Though the stairs were dim, I could see something glittering in the +hand of the person mentioned, who was impersonating for the evening a +dashing young captain of the general staff. My fingers strayed toward +my pocket and my own revolver. Then I pried them away, temporarily, +and took a provisional seat. + +"That's sensible," Franz von Blenheim approved me blandly. "Now, Miss +Falconer, you know what I'm here for, isn't that so? Just hand me +those papers and you'll be as free as air. I'll take myself off; +you'll never see me again probably. That's a fair bargain, isn't it? +What do you say?" + +I was sitting close to the girl, so close that her soft furs brushed +me and I could feel the flutter of her breath against my cheek. At +Blenheim's proposition I glanced at her. She was measuring him +steadily. Then she looked at me, and her eyes seemed to hold some +message that I could not read. + +"Perhaps, Miss Falconer," I interposed, "you have not quite grasped +the situation." I was sparring for time; she wanted to convey +something to me, I was sure. "It is rather complicated. This gentleman +has turned out to be a well-known agent of the kaiser. He was +traveling on the /Re d'Italia/, I gather, on a forged passport, and +had helped himself to my baggage as the most convenient way of +smuggling some papers to the other side." + +He grinned assentingly. + +"You owe me one for that," he owned. "You see, it was my second trip +on that line, and I thought they might have me spotted; I had a lot of +things to carry home,--reports, information, confidential letters, and +I concluded they would be safer with a nice, innocent young man like +you. It didn't work, as things went. It was just a little too clever. +But if you hadn't mixed yourself up with this young lady, and tossed +packages overboard for her under the noses of the stewards, and got +yourself suspected and your baggage searched, I should have turned the +trick!" + +His share in the tangled episode on board the steamer was unfolding. I +understood now why he had sprung to my rescue in the salon when I was +accused. Naturally he had not wanted my traps searched, considering +what was in them. + +"As you say, you were a little too clever," I agreed. + +His eyes glinted viciously. + +"Well, it's no use crying over spilt milk," he retorted; "and besides, +the papers you are going to hand me to-night will even up the score. +It was a piece of luck, my running across Miss Falconer on the liner. +Of course the minute I heard her name I knew what she was crossing +for." The dickens he did! "All I had to do was to follow her, and by +the time we reached Bleau I had guessed enough to come ahead of her. +But I'll admit, Mr. Bayne, now it's all over, it made me nervous to +have you popping up at every turn! I began to think that you suspected +me--that you were trailing me. If you had, you know, I shouldn't have +stood a chance on earth. You could have said a word to the first +gendarme you met and had me laid by the heels and ended it. That was +why I kept warning you off. But I needn't have worried. You drank in +everything I told you as innocent as a babe!" + +If he wanted revenge for my last remark, he had it. I looked at the +girl beside me, so watchfully composed and fearless, then at the +fixed, terrified glare of the motionless Marie-Jeanne. With a little +rudimentary intelligence on my part this situation would have been +spared us. + +"Yes," I acknowledged bitterly; "I did." + +"Except for that," he grinned, "it went like clockwork. There wasn't +even enough danger in the thing to give it spice. Do you know, there +isn't a capital in Europe where I can't get disguises, money, +passports within twelve hours if I want them. Oh, you have a bit to +learn about us, you people on the other side! I've crossed the ocean +four times since the war started; I've been in London, Rome, Paris, +Petrograd--pretty much everywhere. I'm getting homesick, though. The +/laissez-passer/ I've picked up, or forged, no matter which, takes me +straight through to the Front; and I've got friends even in the +trenches. Before the Frenchies know it I'll be across no-man's-land +and inside the German lines!" + +For a moment, as I listened, I was dangerously near admiring him. He +was certainly exaggerating; but it couldn't all be brag. The life of +this spy of the first water, of international fame, must be rather +marvelous; to defy one's enemies with success, to journey calmly +through their capitals, to stroll undetected among their agents of +justice--were not things any fool could do. He carried his life in his +hand, this Franz von Blenheim. He had courage; he even had genius +along his special lines. His impersonation on the liner, shrewd, +slangy, coarse-grained, patronizing, had been a triumph. Then, +suddenly, I remembered a murdered boy beside whom I had knelt that +morning, and my brief flicker of homage died. + +"You think I can't do it, eh?" He had misinterpreted my expression. +"Well, let me tell you I did just a year ago and got over without a +scratch. To get across no-man's-land you have to play dead, as you +Yankees put it; you lie flat on the ground and pull yourself forward a +foot at a time and keep your eye on the search-lights so that when +they come your way you can drop on your face and lie like a corpse +until they move on. It's not pleasant, of course; but in this game we +take our chances. And now I think I'll be claiming my winnings if you +please." + +I straightened in my chair, recognizing a crisis. With his last phrase +he had shed the bearing of Mr. John Van Blarcom, and from the disguise +all in an instant there emerged the Prussian, insolent, overbearing, +fixing us with a look of challenge, and addressing us with crisp +command. No; the kaiser's agent was not a figure of romance or of +adventure. He was a force as able, as ruthless, as cruel as the land +he served. + +"Miss Falconer," he demanded briefly, "where are those papers? I am +not to be played with, I assure you. If you think I am, just recall +this morning, and your chauffeur. We didn't kill him for the pleasure +of it; he had his chance as you have. But when we went for our car he +was there in the garage, sleeping; he seemed to think we had designs +on him, and tried to rouse the inn." + +"Do you call that an excuse for a murder?" I exclaimed. "You cold- +blooded villain!" + +"I don't make excuses." His voice was hard and arrogant. "I am calling +the matter to your notice as a kind warning, Mr. Bayne. You said a +little while ago that to see a woman gagged and bound distressed you. +Well, unless I have those papers within five minutes, you will see +something worse than that!" + +At the moment what I saw was red. There was something beating in my +throat, choking me; I knew neither myself nor the primitive impulses I +felt. + +"If you lay a finger on Miss Falconer," I heard myself saying slowly, +"I swear I'll kill you." + +Then through the crimson mist that enveloped me I saw Blenheim laugh. + +"Come, Mr. Bayne," he taunted me, "remember our friend Schwartzmann. +This is your business, Miss Falconer, I take it. What are you going to +do?" + +The girl flung her head back, and her eyes blazed as she answered him. + +"You can torture me," she said scornfully. "You can kill me. But I +will never give you the papers; you may be sure of that." + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +IN THE DARK + +I thought of a number of things in the ensuing thirty seconds, but +they all narrowed down swiftly to a mere thankfulness that I had been +born. Suppose I hadn't; or suppose I had not happened to stop at the +St. Ives Hotel and sail on the /Re d'Italia/; or that I had remained +in Rome with Jack Herriott instead of hurrying on to Paris; or had let +my quest of the girl end in the rue St.-Dominique instead of trailing +her to Bleau. If one of these links had been omitted, the chain of +circumstance would have been broken, and Miss Falconer would have sat +here confronting these four men alone. + +It was extremely hard for me to believe that the scene was genuine. +The dark hall, the one wavering, flickering candle lighting only the +immediate area of our conference, the bound woman in the chair, the +watchful attitude of our captors. Mr. Schwartzmann's ready weapon--all +were the sort of thing that does not happen to people in our prosaic +day and age. It was like an old-time romantic drama; I felt +inadequate, cast for the hero. I might have been Francois Villon, or +some such Sothern-like incarnation, for all the civilized resources +that I could summon. There were no bells here to be rung for servants, +no telephones to be utilized, no police station round the corner from +which to commandeer prompt aid. + +The most alarming feature of the affair, however, was the manner of +Franz von Blenheim, which was not so much melodramatic as businesslike +and hard. At Miss Falconer's defiance he looked her up and down quite +coolly. Then, turning in his seat, he began giving orders to his men. + +"Schwartzmann," ran the first of these, "I want you to watch this +gentleman. He will probably make some movement presently; if he does, +you are to fire, and not to miss. And you"--he turned to the men by +the door--"pile some wood in the chimney-place and light it. There are +some sticks over yonder,--but if you don't find enough, break up a +chair. Then when you get a good blaze, heat me one of the fire-irons. +Heat it red-hot. And be quick! We are wasting time!" + +The color was leaving the girl's cheeks, but she sat even straighter, +prouder. As for me, for one instant I experienced a blessed relief. I +had been right; it was all impossible. One didn't talk seriously of +red-hot irons. + +"You must think you are King John," I laughed. "But you're +overplaying. Don't worry, Miss Falconer; he won't touch you. There are +things that men don't do." + +He looked at me, not angrily, not in resentment, but in pure contempt; +and I remembered. There were people, hundreds of them, in the burning +villages of Belgium, in the ravaged lands of northern France, who had +once felt the same assurance that certain things couldn't be done and +had learned that they could. I glanced at the men who were piling wood +on the hearth, at their sullen blue eyes, their air of rather stupid +arrogance. I had walked, it seemed, into a nightmare; but then, so had +the world. + +"This isn't a tea party, Mr. Bayne," said Franz von Blenheim. "It is +war. Those papers belong to my government and they are going back. I +shall stop at nothing, nothing on earth, to get them; so if you have +any influence with this young lady, you had better use it now." + +"I am not afraid." The girl's voice was unshaken, bless her. "I said +you could kill me--and I meant it. But I will not tell." + +"And I will not kill you, Miss Falconer." The German's tones were +level, and his eyes, as they dwelt steadily on her, were as hard and +cold as steel. "I don't want you dead; I want you living, with a +tongue and using it; and you will use it. You talk bravely, but you +have no conception--how should you have?--of physical pain. When that +iron is red-hot, if you have not spoken, I shall hold it to your arm +and press it--" + +"Damn you!" The cry was wrenched out of me. "Not while I am here!" + +"You will be here, Mr. Bayne, just so long as it suits me." A sort of +cold ferocity was growing in Blenheim's tones. "And you have yourself +to thank for your position, let me remind you; you would thrust +yourself in. I don't know what you are doing in the business--a +ridiculous mountebank in a leather cap and coat! It's a way you +Yankees have, meddling in things that don't concern you. You seem to +think that you have special rights under Providence, that you own +everything in the universe, even to the high seas. Well, we'll settle +with your country for its munitions and its notes and its driveling +talk about atrocities a little later, when we have finished up the +Allies. And I'll deal with you to-night if you dare to lift a hand." + +There seemed only one answer possible, and my muscles were stiffening +for it when suddenly Miss Falconer's handkerchief, a mere wisp of +linen which she had been clenching between her fingers, dropped to the +floor. With a purely automatic movement, I bent to recover it for her; +she leaned down to receive it. Her pale face and lovely dilated eyes +were close to me for a fleeting second, and though her lips did not +move, I seemed to catch the merest breath, the faintest gossamer +whisper that said: + +"The stairs!" + +Blenheim's gaze, full of suspicion, was upon us as we straightened, +but he could not possibly have heard anything; I had barely heard +myself. I racked my brains. The stairs! But the man Schwartzmann was +guarding them with his revolver. I couldn't imagine what she meant; +and then suddenly I knew. + +Throughout the entire scene, whenever I had glanced at her, I had +noticed the steady way in which her look met mine and then turned +aside. It had seemed almost like a signal or a message she was trying +to give me. And which way had her eyes always gone? Why, down the +hall! + +I looked in that direction and felt my heart leap up exultantly. +Perhaps twenty feet from us, just where the radius of the candle-light +merged off into the darkness, I glimpsed what seemed the merest ghost +of a circular stone staircase, carved and sculptured cunningly, like +lacy foam. Up into the dusk it wound, to the gallery, and to a door. +Behold our objective! I wasted no precious time in pondering the whys +and the wherefores. At any rate, once inside with the bolts shot we +could count on a breathing-space. + +I cast a final glance at Blenheim where he lolled across the table, +and at the shadowy menacing figure of the armed sentinel on the +stairs. The men at the hearth had piled their wood and were bending +forward to light it. + +"Be ready, please!" I said to the girl, aloud. + +As I spoke I bent forward, seized the table by its legs, and raised +it, and concentrated all the wrath, resentment and detestation that +had boiled in me for half an hour into the force with which I dashed +it forward against Blenheim's face. He grunted profoundly as it struck +him. Toppling over with a crash, he rolled upon the floor. The candle, +falling, extinguished itself promptly, and we were left standing in a +hall as black as ink. + +Simultaneously with the blow I had struck there came a spit of flame +from the staircase, a sharp crack, and as I ducked hastily a bullet +spurted past me, within three inches of my head. Miss Falconer was +beside me. Together we retreated, while a second shot, which this time +went wide, struck the wall beyond us and proved that Schwartzmann, +though handicapped, was not giving up the fight. + +So far things had gone better than I had dared to think was possible. +Now, however, they took a sudden and most unwelcome turn. One of the +men by the chimney-place must have wasted no time in leaping for me; +for at this instant, quite without warning, he catapulted on me +through the darkness with the force of a battering-ram. + +The table, which I still held clutched with a view to emergencies, +broke the force of his onslaught. He reeled, stumbled, and collapsed +on his knees. However, he was lacking neither in Teutonic efficiency +nor in resource. Putting out a prompt hand, he seized my ankle and +jerked my foot from under me; the table dropped from my grasp with a +splintering uproar, and I fell. + +Before I could recover myself my enemy had rolled on top of me, and I +felt his fingers at my throat as he clamored in German for a light. He +was a heavy man; his bulk was paralyzing; but I stiffened every +muscle. With a mighty heave I turned half over, rose on my elbow, and +delivered a blow at what, I fondly hoped, might prove the point of his +chin. + +Dark as it was, I had made no miscalculation. He dropped on me once +again, but this time as an inert mass. Burrowing out from under him, I +sprang to my feet aglow with triumph--and found myself in the clutch +of the second gentleman from the chimney-place, who apparently had +come hotfoot to his comrade's aid. + +I was fairly caught. His arms went round me like steel girders, +pinioning mine to my sides before I knew what he was about. In sheer +desperation I summoned all the strength I possessed and a little more. +Ah! I had wrenched my right arm loose; now we should see! I raised it +and managed, despite the close quarters at which we were contending, +to plant a series of crashing blows on my adversary's face. + +The fellow, I must say, bore up pluckily beneath the punishment. He +hung on. There would be a light in a moment, he was doubtless +thinking, and when once that came to pass, it would be all over with +me. But at my fifth blow he wavered groggily, and at my sixth, +endurance failed him. He groaned softly. Then his grasp relaxed, and +he collapsed quietly on the floor. + +Throughout the swift march of these events we had heard nothing of +Herr von Blenheim, a fact from which I deduced with thankfulness that +he was temporarily stunned. Unluckily, he now recovered. As I stood +victorious, but breathless, my cap lost in the scuffle and my coat +torn, I heard him stirring, and an instant later he pulled himself to +his feet and flashed on an electric torch. + +By its weird beam I saw that Miss Falconer was close beside me. Good +heavens! Why, I though in anguish, wasn't she already upstairs? But I +knew only too well; she wouldn't desert her champion. It was probably +too late now. Blenheim, much congested as to countenance, seemed on +the point of springing; his battered aids were struggling up in +menacing, if unsteady, fashion; and Mr. Schwartzmann, at length +provided with the light he wanted, was aiming at me with ominous +deliberation from his coign of vantage above. + +However, we were at the circular staircase. Again I caught up the +table and held it before us as a shield while we climbed upward, side +by side. In the distance my friend Schwartzmann was hopefully potting +at us. A bullet, with a sharp ping, embedded itself in the thick wood +in harmless fashion; another struck the shaft beside me, splintering +its stone. We were at the last turn--but our pursuers were climbing +also. I bent forward and let them have the table, hurling it with all +possible force. + +As it catapulted down upon them it knocked Blenheim off his balance, +and he in his unforeseen descent swept the others from their feet. A +swearing, groaning mass, a conglomeration of helplessly waving arms +and legs, they rolled downward. Victory! I was about to join Miss +Falconer in the doorway when there came a final flash from the +opposite staircase, and I felt a stinging sensation across my forehead +and a spurt of blood into my eyes. + +The pain of the slight wound promptly altered my intentions. Instead +of leaving the gallery, I sprang forward to the balustrade. Whipping +my revolver out at last, I aimed deliberately and fired; whereupon I +had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Schwartzmann rock, struggle, apparently +regain his equilibrium, and then suddenly crumple up and pitch +headlong down the stairs. + +Below, Blenheim and his friend were extricating themselves from that +blessed table. I passed through the door and thrust it shut and shot +the bolts. We were safe for the present. I could not see Miss +Falconer, nor did she speak to me; but her hand groped for my arm and +rested there, and I covered it with one of mine. + +Then, as we stood contentedly drawing breath, we heard steps mounting +the staircase. Some one struck a vicious blow against the heavy door. +Blenheim's voice, hoarse and muffled, reached us through the panels. + +"Can you hear me there?" it asked. + +If tones could kill! I summoned breath enough to answer with cheerful +coolness. + +"Every syllable," I responded. "What did you wish to say?" + +"Just this." He was panting, either with exhaustion or fury, and there +were slow, labored pauses between his words. "I will give you half an +hour, exactly, to come out--with the papers. After that we will break +the door down. And then you can say your prayers." + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE GUEST OF PREZELAY + +The sanctuary into which we had stumbled was as black as Erebus save +for one dimly grayish patch, which, I surmised, meant a window. When +those heavy feet had clumped down the staircase, silence enveloped us +again, beatific silence. Instantly I banished the late Mr. Van Blarcom +from my consciousness. With a good stout door between us what +importance had his threats? + +The truth was that my blood was singing through my veins and my +spirits were soaring. I would gladly have stood there forever, +triumphant in the dark, with Miss Falconer's soft, warm fingers +trembling a little, but lying in contented, almost cosy, fashion under +mine. Had there ever been such a girl, at once so sweet and so daring? +To think how she had waited for me all through that battle below! + +A little breathless murmur came to me through the darkness. + +"Oh, Mr. Bayne! You were so wonderful! How am I ever going to thank +you?" was what it said. + +"You needn't. Let me thank you for letting me in on it!" I exulted +happily. "I give you my word, I haven't enjoyed anything so much in +years. It was all a hallucination, of course; but it was jolly while +it lasted. I was only worried every instant for fear the hall and the +men would vanish, like an Arabian Nights' palace or the Great Horn +Spoon or Aladdin's jinn!" + +Very gently she withdrew her fingers, and my mood toppled ludicrously. +Why had I been rejoicing? We were in the deuce of a mess! So far I had +simply won a half hour's respite to be followed by the deluge; for if +Blenheim had been ruthless before, what were his probable intentions +now? + +"We have lost our candle in the fracas," I muttered lamely. + +"It doesn't matter. I have another," she answered in a soft, unsteady +voice. + +As she coaxed the light into being, I made a rapid survey. We were in +a room of gray stone, of no great size and quite bare of furnishing, +save for a few stone benches built into alcoves in the wall. The +bareness of the scene emphasized our lack of resources. As a sole ray +of hope, I perceived a possible line of retreat if things should grow +too warm for us, a door facing the one by which we had come in. + +With all the excitement, I had forgotten Mr. Schwartzmann's bullet, +which, I have no doubt, had left me a gory spectacle. At any rate, I +frightened Miss Falconer when the candle-light revealed me. In an +instant she was bending over me, forcing me gently down upon a +particularly cold, hard bench. + +"They shot you!" she was exclaiming. Her voice was low, but it held an +astonishing protective fierceness. "They--they dared to hurt you! Oh, +why didn't you tell me? Is it very bad?" + +"No! no!" I protested, dabbing futilely at my forehead. "It isn't of +the least importance. I assure you it is only a scratch. In fact," I +groaned, "nobody could hurt my head; it is too solid. It must be +ivory. If I had had a vestige of intelligence, an iota of it, the +palest glimmer, I should have known from the beginning exactly who +these fellows were!" + +She was sitting beside me now, bending forward, all consoling +eagerness. + +"That is ridiculous!" she declared. "How could you guess?" + +"Easily enough," I murmured. "I had all the clues at Gibraltar. Why, +yesterday, on my way to your house in the rue St.-Dominique, I went +over the whole case in the taxi, and still I didn't see. I let the +fellow confide in me on the ship and warn me on the train and give me +a final solemn ultimatum at the inn last night and come on here to +frighten you and threaten you--when just a word to the police would +have settled him forever. By George, I can't believe it! I should take +a prize at an idiot show." + +She laughed unsteadily. + +"I don't see that," she answered. "Why should you have suspected him +when even the authorities didn't guess? You are not a detective. You +are a--a very brave, generous gentleman, who trusted a girl against +all the evidence and helped her and protected her and risked your life +for hers. Isn't that enough? And about their frightening me downstairs +--they didn't. You see, Mr. Bayne--you were there." + +A wisp of red-brown hair had come loose across her forehead. Her face, +flushed and royally grateful, was smiling into mine. Till that moment +I had never dreamed that eyes could be so dazzling. I thrust my hands +deep into my pockets; I felt they were safer so. + +"What is it?" she faltered, a little startled, as I rose. + +"Nothing--now," I replied firmly. "I'll tell you later, to-morrow +maybe, when we have seen this thing through. And in the meantime, +whatever happens, I don't want you to give a thought to it. The German +doesn't live who can get the better of me--not after what you have +said." + +The situation suddenly presented itself in rosy colors. I saw how +strong the door was, what a lot of breaking it would take. And if they +did force a way in, then I could try some sharp-shooting. But Miss +Falconer was getting up slowly. + +"Now the papers, Mr. Bayne," said she. + +To be sure, the papers! I had temporarily forgotten them. + +"They can't be here," I said blankly, gazing about the room. + +"No, not here. In there." She motioned toward the inner door. "This is +the old suite of the lords of Prezelay. We are in the room of the +guards, where the armed retainers used to lie all night before the +fire, watching. Then comes the antechamber and then the room of the +squires and then the bedchamber of the lord." Her voice had fallen now +as if she thought that the walls were listening. "In the lord's room +there is a secret hiding-place behind a panel; and if the papers are +at Prezelay, they will be there." + +I took the candle from her, turned to the door, and opened it. + +"I hope they are," I said. "Let us go and see." + +The antechamber, the room of the squires, the bedchamber of the lord. +Such terms were fascinating; they called up before me a whole picture +of feudal life. Thanks to the attentions of the Germans, the rooms +were mere empty shells, however, though they must have been rather +splendid when decked out with furniture and portraits and tapestries +before the war. + +Our steps echoed on the stone as we traversed the antechamber, a +quaint round place, lined with bull's-eye windows and presided over by +the statues of four armed men. Another door gave us entrance to the +quarter of the squires. We started across it, but in the center of the +floor I stopped. In all the other rooms of the castle dust had lain +thick, but there was none here. Elsewhere the windows had been closed +and the air heavy and musty, but here the soft night breeze was +drifting in. On a table, in odd conjunction, stood the remains of a +meal, a roll of bandages, and a half-burned candle; and finally, +against the wall lay a bed of a sort, a mattress piled with tumbled +sheets. + +Were these Marie-Jeanne's quarters? I did not know, but I doubted. I +turned to the girl. + +"Miss Falconer," I said, attempting naturalness, "will you go back to +the guard-room and wait there a few minutes, please? I think--that is, +it seems just possible that some one is hiding in yonder. I'd prefer +to investigate alone if you don't mind." + +I broke off, suddenly aware of the look she was casting round her. It +did not mean fear; it could mean nothing but an incredulous, dawning +hope. These signs of occupancy suggested to her something so +wonderful, so desirable that she simply dared not credit them; she was +dreading that they might slip through her fingers and fade away! I +made a valiant effort at understanding. + +"Perhaps," I said, "you're expecting some one. Did you think that a--a +friend of yours might have arrived here before we came?" She did not +glance at me, but she bent her head, assenting. All her attention was +focused raptly on that bed beside the wall. + +"Yes," she whispered; "a long time before us. A month ago at least." +Her eyes had begun to shine. "Oh, I don't dare to believe it; I've +hardly dared to hope for it. But if it is true, I am going to be +happier than I ever thought I could be again." + +She made a swift movement toward the door, but I forestalled her. +Whatever that room held, I must have a look at it before she went. I +flung the door open, blocked her passage, and stopped in my tracks, +for the best of reasons. A young man was sitting on a battered oak +chest beneath a window, facing me, and in his right hand, propped on +his knees, there glittered a revolver that was pointed straight at my +heart. + +I stood petrified, measuring him. He was lightly built and slender. He +had a manner as glittering as his weapon, and a pair of remarkably +cool and clear gray eyes. His picturesqueness seemed wasted on mere +flesh and blood it was so perfect. Coatless, but wearing a shirt of +the finest linen, he looked like some old French duelist and ought, I +felt, to be gazing at me, rapier in hand, from a gilt-framed canvas on +the wall. + +In the brief pause before he spoke I gathered some further data. He +was a sick man and he had recently been wounded; at present he was +keeping up by sheer courage, not by strength. His lips were pressed in +a straight line, his eyes were shadowed, and his pallor was ghastly. +Finally, he was wearing his left arm in a sling across his breast. + +"Monsieur," he now enunciated clearly, "will raise both hands and keep +them lifted. Monsieur sees, doubtless, that I am in no state for a +wrestling-match. For that very reason he must take all pains not to +forget himself--for should he stir, however slightly, I grieve to say +that I must shoot." + +The casualness of his tones made Blenheim's menaces seem childish and +futile. I had not the slightest doubt that he would keep his word. +Yet, without any reason whatever, I liked him and I had no fear of +him; I did not feel for a single instant that Miss Falconer was in +danger; she was as safe with him, I knew instinctively, as she was +with me. + +I opened my lips to parley, but found myself interrupted. A cry came +from behind me, a low, utterly rapturous cry. I was thrust aside, and +saw the girl spring past me. An instant later she was by the stranger, +kneeling, with her arms about him and her bright head against his +cheek. + +"Jean! Dear Jean!" she was crying between tears and laughter. "We +thought you were dead! We thought you were never coming back to +Raincy-la-Tour!" + +It seemed to me that some one had struck my head a stunning blow. For +an interval I stood dazed; then, painfully, my brain stirred. Things +went dancing across it like sharp, stabbing little flames, guesses, +memories, scraps of talk I had heard, items I had read; but they were +scattered, without cohesion; like will-o'-the-wisps, they could not be +seized. + +There was a young man, a noble of France, who had been a hero. I had +read of him in a certain extra, as my steamer left New York. He had +disappeared. Certain papers had vanished with him. He had been +suspected, because it was known that the Germans wanted those special +documents. All the world, I thought dully, seemed to be hunting +papers; the French, the Germans, Miss Falconer, and I. + +Once more I looked at the man on the chest. He had dropped his pistol +and was clasping the girl to him, soothing her, stroking her hair. My +brain began to work more rapidly. The little flashes of light seemed +to run together, to crystallize into a whole. I knew. + +Jean-Herve-Marie-Olivier, the Duke of Raincy-la-Tour, the Firefly of +France. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE FIREFLY OF FRANCE + +He was very weak indeed; it seemed a miracle that, at the sounds +below, he had found strength to drag himself from his bed and crawl +inch by inch to the room of the secret panel to mount guard there; and +no sooner had he soothed Miss Falconer than he collapsed in a sort of +swoon. We laid him on the chest, and I fetched a pillow for his head +and stripped off my coat and spread it over him. I took out my pocket- +flask, too, and forced a few drops between his teeth. In short I tried +to play the game. + +When his eyes opened, however, my endurance had reached its limits. +With a muttered excuse,--not that I flattered myself they wanted me to +stay!--I left them and stumbled into the room of the squires, taking +refuge in the grateful dark. I don't know how long I sat there, elbows +on knees, hands propping my head; but it was a ghastly vigil. In this +round, unlike the battle in the hall, I had not been victor. Instead, +I had taken the count. + +I knew now, of course, that I was in love with Esme Falconer. Judging +from the violence of the sensation, I must have loved her for quite a +while. Probably it had begun that night in the St. Ives restaurant; +for when before had I watched any girl with such special, ecstatic, +almost proprietary rapture? Yes, that was why, ever since, I had been +cutting such crazy capers. From first to last they were the natural +thing, the prerogative of a man in my state of mind or heart. + +Many threads of the affair still remained to be unraveled. I didn't +know what the duke was doing here, what he had been about for a month +past, how the girl, far off in America, had guessed his whereabouts +and his need; nor did I care. His mere existence was enough--that and +Esme's love for him. All my interest in my Chinese puzzle had come to +a wretched end. + +"Confound him!" I thought savagely. "We could have spared him +perfectly. What business has he turning up at the eleventh hour? He +didn't cross the ocean with her. He didn't suspect her unforgivably. +He didn't help her, and disguise himself as a chauffeur for her, and +wing Schwartzmann, and bruise up the other chaps and send them rolling +in a heap. This is my adventure. He must have had a hundred. Why +couldn't he stick to his high-flying and dazzling and let me alone?" + +The murmur of voices drifted from the lord's bedchamber. I could guess +what they had to say to each other, Miss Falconer and her duke. The +Firefly of France! Even I, a benighted foreigner, knew the things that +title stood for: heroism, in a land where every soldier was a hero; +praise and medals and glory; thirty conquered aeroplanes--a record +over which his ancestors, those old marshals and constables lying +effigied on their tombs of marble with their feet resting on carved +lions, must nod their heads with pride. + +"Mr. Bayne!" + +It was Miss Falconer's voice. I rose reluctantly and obeyed the +summons. The Firefly was sitting propped on the chest, white, but +steadier, while Esme still knelt beside him, holding his hand in hers. + +"I have been telling Jean, Mr. Bayne, how you have helped us." The +radiance of her face, the lilt of her voice, stabbed me with a jealous +pang. I wanted to see her happy, Heaven knew, but not quite in this +manner. "And he wants to thank you for all that you have done." + +The Duke of Raincy-la-Tour spoke to me in English that was correct, +but quaintly formal, of a decided charm. + +"Monsieur," he said, "I offer you my gratitude. And if you will touch +the hand of one concerning whom, I fear, very evil things are +believed--" + +I forced a smile and a hearty pressure. + +"I'll risk it," I assured him. "The chain of evidence against you +seemed far-fetched to say the least. They pointed out accusingly that +your father and your grandfather had been royalists, and that +therefore--" + +He made a gesture. + +"May their souls find repose! Monsieur, it is true that they were. But +if they lived to-day, my father and grandfather, they would not be +traitors. They would wear, like me, the uniform of France." + +He smiled, and I knew once for all that I could never hate him; that +mere envy and a shame of it were the worst that I could feel. +Everything about him won me, his simplicity, his fine pride, his +clearness of eye and voice, his look of a swift, polished sword blade. +I had never seen a man like him. The Duchess of Raincy-la-Tour would +be a lucky woman; so much was plain. + +I found a seat on the window ledge, the girl remained kneeling by him, +and he told us his story, always in that quaint, formal speech. As it +went on it absorbed me. I even forgot those clasped hands for an +occasional instant. In every detail, in every quiet sentence, there +was some note that brought before me the Firefly's achievements, the +marauding airships he had climbed into the air to meet, the foes he +had swooped from the blue to conquer, his darts into the land of his +enemies where there was a price upon his head. + +The story had to do with a night when he had left the French lines +behind him. His commander had been quite frank. The mission meant his +probable death. He was to wear a German uniform; to land inside the +lines of the kaiser, to conceal his plane, if luck favored him, among +the trees in the grounds of the old chateau of Ranceville; to get what +knowledge and sketch what plans he could of defenses against which the +French attacks had hitherto broken vainly, and to bring them home. + +All had gone well at first. His gallant little plane had winged its +way into the unknown like a darting swallow; he had landed safely; and +after he had walked for hours with the Germans about him and death +beside him, he had gained his spoils. It was as he rose for the return +flight that the alarm was given. He got away; but he had five hostile +aircraft after him. Could he hope to elude them and to land safely at +the French lines? + +It was in that hour, while the night lingered and the stars still +shone and the cannon of the two armies challenged each other steadily, +that the Firefly of France fought his greatest battle in the air. +Since his whole aim was escape, it was bloodless; he had to trust to +skill and cunning; he dared manoeuvers that appalled others, dropped +plummet-like, looped dizzily, soared to the sheerest heights. He had +been wounded. The framework of his plane was damaged. Still he gained +on his foes and won through to the lines of France. + +"But I might not land there," he explained. "The Germans followed. A +mist had closed about us, hiding us from my friends below. I heard +only my propeller; and that, by now, sounded faint to me, for I was +weakening; one shot had hit my shoulder and another had wounded my +left arm." + +The girl swayed closer against him, watching him with eyes of worship. +Well, I didn't wonder, though it cut me to the heart. Even a fairy +prince could have been no worthier of her than this Jean-Herve-Marie- +Olivier; of that at least, I told myself dourly, I must be glad. + +"As I raced on," said the duke, "there came a certain thought to me. +We had traveled far; we were in the country near Prezelay, my cousin's +house. The village, I knew, was ruined, but the chateau stood; and if +I could reach it, old Marie-Jeanne would help me. You comprehend, my +weakness was growing. I knew I had little more time." + +The shrouding mist had aided him to lose those pursuing vultures. The +last of them fell off, baffled,--or afraid to go deeper into France. +Now he emerged again into the clear air and the starlight. The land +beneath him was a scudding blur, with a dark-green mass in its center, +the forest of La Fay. + +And then, suddenly, he knew he must land if he were not to lose +consciousness and hurtle down blindly; and with set teeth and sweat +beading his forehead, he began the descent. At the end his strength +failed him. The plane crashed among the trees. "But Saint Denis, who +helps all Frenchmen, helped me,"--he smiled--"and I was thrown clear." + +From that thicket where his machine lay hidden it was a mile to +Prezelay. He dragged himself over this distance, sometimes on his +hands and knees. Soon after dawn Marie-Jeanne, answering a discordant +ringing, found a man lying outside the gate and babbling deliriously, +her master's cousin, in a blood-soaked uniform, holding out a bundle +of papers, and begging her by the soul of her mother to put them in +the castle's secret hiding-place. + +She did it. Then she coaxed the wounded man to the rooms opening from +the gallery and tended him day and night through the weeks of fever +that ensued. From his ravings she learned that he was in danger and +feared pursuers; and with the peasant's instinct for caution, she had +not dared to send for help. + +"It was yesterday," the duke told us, "that my mind came back. I knew +then what must be thought of me, what must be said of me, all over +France." He was leaning on the wall now, exhausted and white, but +dauntless. "No matter for that--I have the papers. You recall the +hiding-place?" + +He smiled as he asked the question, and Miss Falconer smiled back at +him. Getting to her feet, she ran her fingers across the oak panel +over his head, where for centuries a huntsman had been riding across a +forest glade and blowing his horn. The bundle of his hunting-knife +protruded just a little; and as the girl pressed it, the panel glided +silently open, revealing a space, square and dark and cobwebby. + +Something was lying there, a thin, wafer-like packet of papers, the +papers for which the Firefly of France had shed his blood. She held +them up in triumph. But the duke was still smiling faintly. He thrust +one hand into his shirt and drew out a duplicate package, which he +raised for us to see. + +"Behold!" he said. "They are copies. All that I sketched that night +near Ranceville, all that I wrote--I did not once, but twice. These I +carried openly, to be found if I were captured. But those you hold +went hidden in the sole of my boot, which was hollowed for them, so +that if I were taken and then escaped, they might go too!" + +I had read of such devices, I remembered vaguely. There was a story of +a young French captain who had tried the trick in Champagne and +succeeded with it, a rather famous exploit. Then I thought of +something else. I got up slowly. + +"You have two sets of papers?" I repeated. + +"As you see, Monsieur." + +"Then I'll take one of them," said I. + +Miss Falconer was looking at me in a puzzled fashion. As for the duke, +his brows drew together; his figure straightened; the cool glint grew +in his eyes. + +"Monsieur," he stated somewhat icily, "such things as these are not +souvenirs. When they leave my possession they will go to the supreme +command." + +"Certainly," I agreed, unruffled. "That will do admirably for the +first package; but about the second--no doubt Miss Falconer told you +that we have German guests downstairs? Perhaps she forgot to mention +the leader's name, though. It is Franz von Blenheim. And I don't care +to have him break down the door and burst in on us, on her specially; +I would rather, all things considered, interview him in the hall." + +The Firefly's face had altered at the name of the secret agent; he was +now regarding me with intentness, but without a frown. As for Miss +Falconer, the trouble in her eyes was growing. I should have to be +careful. Accordingly I summoned a debonair manner as I went on. + +"If you'll allow me," I said, "I will take the papers down to him. He +won't know that they are copies; he will snatch at them, glad of the +chance. And since he is in a hurry, he probably won't stop to parley. +He will simply be off at top speed, and leave us safe. + +"Of course, that is the one unpleasant feature of the affair, his +going." At this point I glanced in a casual manner at the Duke of +Raincy-la-Tour. "It seems a pity to let him walk off scot-free, to +plan more trouble for France; but that is past praying for. I could +hardly hope to stop him, except by a miracle. If there is one, I'll be +on hand." + +Would the duke guess the hope with which I was going downstairs, I +wondered. I thought he did, for his eyes flashed slightly, and he +stirred a little on the chest. + +"Such a miracle, Monsieur," he remarked, "would serve France greatly. +As a good son of the Church, I will pray for it with all my heart!" + +"I hope to come back," I went on, "and rejoin you. But if I shouldn't +for any reason,"--with careful vagueness,--"you must stay here, +barricaded, till they are gone. Then Miss Falconer can drive her car +to the nearest town and bring back help for you. You see, it will be +entirely simple, either way." + +The girl, very white now, took a swift step toward me. + +"Simple?" she cried. "They will kill you! They hate you, Mr. Bayne, +and they are four to one. You mustn't go." + +But the duke's hand was on her arm. + +"My dear," he said, "he has reason. This friend of yours, I perceive, +is a gallant gentleman. Believe me, if I had strength to stand, he +would not go alone." + +He held out the papers to me, and I took them. Then we clasped hands, +the Firefly and I. + +"/Bonne chance, Monsieur/," he bade me with the pressure. + +"Good luck and good-bye," I answered. "Miss Falconer, will you come to +the door?" + +She took up the candle and came forward to light me, and we went in +silence through the room of the squires and through the ante-chamber +and into the room of the guards. She walked close beside me; her eyes +shone wet; her lips trembled. There were things I would have given the +world to say, but I suppressed them. To the very end, I had resolved, +I would play fair. We were at the outer door. + +"Good-by, Miss Falconer," I said, halting. "You mustn't worry; +everything is going to turn out splendidly, I am sure. Only, now that +we have the papers, it ends our little adventure, doesn't it? So +before I go I want to thank you for our day together. It has been +wonderful. There never was another like it. I shall always be thankful +for it, no matter what I have to pay." + +I stopped abruptly, realizing that this was not cricket. To make up, I +put out my hand quite coolly; but she grasped it in both of hers and +held it in a soft, warm clasp. + +"I shall never forget," she whispered. "Come back to us, Mr. Bayne!" + +For a moment I looked at her in the light of the candle, at her lovely +face, at the ruddy hair framing it, at the tears heavy on her lashes. +Then I drew the bolt and went out and heard her fasten the door. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE OBUS + +I stood in the gallery for an instant, indulging in a reconnoissance. +The hall was now illuminated by an electric torch and three guttering +candles; at the foot of the staircase lay the table which had done +such yeoman's service, split in two. As for the besiegers, they were +gathered near the chimney-place in a worse-for-wear group, one nursing +a nosebleed; another feeling gingerly of a loose tooth; Blenheim +himself frankly raging, and decorated with a broad cut across his +forehead and a cheek that was rapidly taking on assorted shades of +blue, green, and black; and the redoubtable Mr. Schwartzmann, worst +off of all, lying in a heap, groaning at intervals, but apparently +quite unaware of what was going on. + +My abrupt sally seemed transfixing. I might have been Medusa. I had a +welcome minute in which to contemplate the victims of my prowess and +to exult unchristianly in their scars. Then the tableau dissolved, the +three men sprang up, and I took action. As I emerged I had drawn out a +handkerchief and I now proceeded to raise and wave it. + +"Well, Herr von Blenheim, I have come to parley with you," I +announced, "white flag and all." + +He tried to look as if he had expected me, though it was obvious that +he hadn't. To give verisimilitude to the pretense, he even pulled out +his watch. + +"I thought you would. You had just two minutes' grace," he commented, +watching me narrowly. "Suppose you come down. You have brought the +papers, I hope--for your own sake?" + +"Oh, yes!" I assured him with all possible blandness. "I have brought +them. What else was there to do? You had us in the palm of your hand. +That door is old and worm-eaten; you could have crumpled it up like +paper. When we thought the situation over we saw its hopelessness at +once; so here I am." + +"That is sensible," he agreed curtly, though I could see that he was +puzzled. Casting a baffled glance beyond me, he scanned the gallery +door. It by no means merited my description, being heavy, solid, +almost immovable in aspect. "Well, let's have the papers!" he said, +with suspicion in his tone. + +I descended in a deliberate manner, casting alert eyes about me, for, +to use an expressive idiom, I was not doing this for my health. On the +contrary I had two very definite purposes; the first, which I could +probably compass, was to save Miss Falconer from further intercourse +with Blenheim and to conceal the presence of the wounded, helpless +Firefly from his enemies; the second, surprisingly modest, was to make +the four Germans prisoners and hand them over in triumph to the +gendarmes of the nearest town, Santierre. + +I was perfectly aware of the absurdity of this ambition. I lacked the +ghost of an idea of how to set about the thing. But the general +craziness of events had unhinged me. I was forming the habit of +trusting to pure luck and /vogue la galere/! I can't swear that I +hadn't visions of conquering all my adversaries in some miraculous +single-handed fashion, disarming them, and, as a final sweet touch of +revenge, tying them up in chairs, to keep Marie-Jeanne company and +meditate on the turns of fate. + +"Here they are," I said, obligingly offering the package. "We found +them nestling behind a panel--old family hiding place, you know. I +can't vouch for their contents, not being an expert, but Miss Falconer +was satisfied. How about it, now you look at them? Do they seem all +right?" + +Not paying the slightest attention to my conversational efforts, +Blenheim had snatched the papers, torn them hungrily open, and run +them through. He was bristling with suspicion; but he evidently knew +his business. It did not take him long to conclude that he really had +his spoils. + +Folding them up carefully, he thrust them into his coat and stored +them, displaying, however, less triumph than I had thought he would. +The truth was that he looked preoccupied, and I wondered why. For the +first time in all the hair-trigger situations that I had seen him face +I sensed a strain in him. + +"So much for that. Now, Mr. Bayne, what do you think we mean to do to +you?" he asked. + +"I don't know, I am sure," I answered rather absently; I was weighing +the relative merits of jiu-jitsu and my five remaining revolver-shots. +"Is there anything sufficiently lingering? Let me suggest boiling oil; +or I understand that roasting over a slow fire is considered tasty. +Either of those methods would appeal to you, wouldn't it?" + +"I don't deny it!" Blenheim answered in a tone that was convincing. +"You haven't endeared yourself to us, my friend, in the last hour. But +we can't spare you yet; our plans for the evening are lively ones and +they include you. I told you, didn't I, that we were going to no +man's-land via the trenches, when we finished this affair?" + +"You told me many interesting things. I've forgotten some of the +details." I was aware of a thrill of excitement. The man was worried; +so much was sure. + +"You will recall them presently, or if you don't, I'll refresh your +memory. The fact is, Mr. Bayne, you have put a pretty spoke in our +wheel. It stands this way: our papers are made out for a party of four +officers, and you have eliminated Schwartzmann. Don't you owe us some +amends for that? You like disguises, I gather from your costume. What +do you say to putting on a new one, a pale-blue uniform, and seeing us +through the lines?" + +He looked, while uttering this wild pleasantry, about as humorous as +King Attila. Could he possibly be in earnest? After all, perhaps he +was! War rules were cast-iron things; if his pass called for four men, +four he must have or rouse suspicion; and it was certain that Herr +Schwartzmann would do no gadding to-night or for many nights to come. +That shot of mine from the gallery had upset Blenheim's plans very +neatly. I stared at him, fascinated. + +"Well?" said he. "Do you understand?" + +"I understand," I exclaimed indignantly, "that this is too much! It +is, really. I was getting hardened; I could stand a mere impossibility +or two and not blink; but this! It is beyond the bounds. I shall begin +to see green snakes presently or writhing sea-serpents--" + +"No," Blenheim cut me short savagely, "you are underestimating. Unless +you oblige us what you will see is the hereafter, Mr. Bayne!" + +Yes, he meant it. His very fierceness, eloquent of frazzled nerves, +was proof conclusive. With another thrill, triumphant this time, I +recognized my chance. His campaign, instead of going according to +specifications, had been interfered with; his position was dangerous; +he had no time to lose; for all he knew, at any point along the road +his masquerade might have been suspected, the authorities notified, +vengeance put on his track. In desperation he meant to risk my +denouncing him, use me till he reached the Front trenches and his +friends there, and then, no doubt, get rid of me. What he couldn't +guess was that I would have turned the earth upside down to make this +opportunity that he was offering me on a silver tray. + +"Oh, I'll oblige you," I assured him with what must have seemed insane +cheerfulness. "I'll oblige you, Her von Blenheim, with all the +pleasure in the world. If you really want me, that is. If my presence +won't make you nervous. Aren't you afraid, for instance, that I might +be tempted to share my knowledge of your name and your profession with +the first French soldiers we meet?" + +"As to that, we will take our chances." Blenheim's face was adamant, +though my suggestion had produced a not entirely enlivening effect on +his two friends. "You see, Mr. Bayne, in this business the risks will +be mostly yours. There will be no flights of stairs to dart up and no +tables to over turn and no candles to extinguish; you will sit in the +tonneau with a man beside you, a very watchful man, and a pistol +against your side. You don't want to die, do you? I thought not, since +you surrendered those papers. Well, then, you'll be wise not to say a +word or stir a muscle. And now we are in a hurry. Will you make your +toilet, please?" + +It was the bizarre curtain scene of what I had called an extravaganza. +Blenheim's confederates, taking no special pains for gentleness, +stripped off the outer garments of the prostrate Schwartzmann, who +moaned and groaned throughout the process, though he never opened his +eyes. Blenheim urged haste upon us; he was getting more fidgety every +instant; he bit his lip, drummed with his fingers, kept an ear cocked, +as if expecting to hear pursuers at the door. Still, he neglected no +precautions. He demanded my revolver. I surrendered it amiably, and +then doffed my chauffeur's outfit and took, from a social standpoint, +a gratifying step upward, donning one by one the insignia of France. + +The fit was not perfect by any means. Schwartzmann was a giant, a +mountain. My feet swished aloud groggily in his burnished putties; his +garments hung round me in ample, rather than graceful, folds. However, +the loose cape of horizon blue resembled charity in covering defects. +As a dummy, sitting motionless in the rear of the automobile, my +captors felt that I would pass. + +By this time I was enchanted with the plans I was concocting. I might +look like an opera-bouffe hero,--no doubt I did,--but my hour would +come. Meanwhile events were marching. My transformation being +complete, Blenheim gave a curt order in German, the candles were blown +out, and lighted only by the torch, we turned toward the door. There +was an inarticulate cry from Schwartzmann, just conscious enough, poor +beggar, to grasp the fact of his abandonment in the strategic retreat +his friends were beating. Then we were out in the courtyard, beneath +the stars. + +Down the hill, sheltered behind the stones of a ruined house, the gray +car was waiting, and Blenheim climbed into the driver's seat, +meanwhile giving brief directions. There was no noise, no flurry; the +affair, I must say, went with an efficiency in keeping with the +proudest Prussian traditions. I was installed in the tonneau, and I +was hardly seated before the motor hummed into life, and we jolted +into the moonlit road. + +For perhaps the hundredth time I asked myself if I was dreaming; if +this person in a French disguise, speeding through the night with a +blue-clad German beside him,--a German suffering, by the way, from a +headache, the last stages of a nosebleed, and a pronounced dislike for +me as the agency responsible for his ailments,--was really Devereux +Bayne. But the air was cold on my face; a revolver pressed my side; I +saw three set, hard profiles. It was not a dream; it was a dash for +safety. And it was engineered by anxious, desperate men. + +Blenheim, hunched over the steering wheel, had settled to his +business. Certainly his nerve was going; the mania for escape had +caught him; he took startling chances on his curves and turns. Still, +he knew the country, it seemed. We drove on, fast and furiously, by +lanes, by mere paths set among thickets, by narrow brushwood roads. +Sometimes we skirted the river, which shone silver in the moonlight, +lined with rushes. Again, we could see nothing but a roof of trees +overhead. + +We emerged into a wider road, and I became award of various noises; a +booming, clear and regular; the sound of voices; the rumbling of many +wheels. We must be nearing the Front; we were rejoining the main +highroad. My guess was proved correct at the next turning, where a +sentry barred our path. + +The sight of his honest French face was like a tonic to me. In some +welcome way it seemed to hearten me for my task. The pistol of my +friend in the tonneau bored through his cape into my side; I sat very +quiet. If I did this four, five, perhaps six times, they might think +me cowed and relax their vigilance. Their suspicions would be lulled +by my tractability and their contempt. Then my hour would strike. + +Satisfied with the safe-conducts, the sentry gestured us forward, and +his figure slipped out of my vision as the gray car purred on. The man +beside me chuckled. + +"Behold this Yankee! He is as good as gold, my captain. He sits like a +mouse," he announced in his own tongue. + +"He'll be wise," Blenheim announced, "to go on doing so." The threat +was in English for my benefit and came from between his teeth. + +In front of us the noise was growing. With our next turn we entered +the highroad, taking our place in a long rumbling line of ambulances +and supply-carts and laboring camions, or trucks. We glimpsed faces, +heard voices all about us. The change from solitude to this unbroken +procession was bewildering. But we did not long remain a part of it; +we turned again into narrower lanes. + +The control was growing stricter. Four separate times we were halted, +and always I sat hunched in my corner as impassive as a stone. The +more deeply we penetrated toward the Front, the more uneasy grew my +companions. Each time that a sentry halted us they waited in more +anxiety for his verdict. The man beside me, it was true, still menaced +me with his pistol point; but the gesture had grown perfunctory. He +did not think I would attempt anything. He believed now that I was +afraid. + +Our road crossed a hilltop, and I saw beneath us a valley, streaked at +intervals with blinding signal-flashes of red and green. In my ears +the thunder of the guns was growing steadily. When we were stopped +again, the sentry warned us. The road we were traveling, he said, had +been intermittently under fire for two days. + +It looked, indeed, as if devils had used it for a playground; the +trees were mere blackened stumps; the fields on each side stretched +burnt and bare. And then came the climax: something passed us,--high +above our heads, I fancy, though its frightful winds seemed brushing +us,--a ghost of the night, an aerial demon, a shrieking thing that +made the man beside me cringe and shudder. It was new to me, but I +could not mistake it. It was what the French call an /obus/, a word +that in some subtle manner seems more menacing and dreadful than our +own term of shell. + +As we sped on I leaned against the cushions, outwardly quiet. +Inwardly, I was gathering myself together for my attempt. I had not +thought I would first approach the Front this way; but it was a good +way, I had a good object. At the next stop, whatever it was, I meant +to make the venture. I did not doubt I should succeed in it. But I +could not hope to keep my life. + +Another /obus/ hurtled over us and shrieked away into the distance; +and again the man beside me flinched, but I did not. I was thinking, +with odd lucidity, of many things, among them Dunny and his old house +in Washington, into which I should never again let myself with my +latch-key, sure of a welcome at any hour of the day or night. My +guardian's gray head rose before me. My heart tightened. The finest, +straightest old chap who ever took a forlorn little tike in out of the +wet, and petted him, and frolicked with him, and filled his stocking +all the year round, and made his holidays things of rapture, and +taught him how to ride and shoot and fish and swim and cut his losses +and do pretty much everything that makes life worth living--that was +Dunny. + +"This will be a hard jolt for the old chap," I thought, "but he'll say +that I played the game." + +And Esme Falconer, my own brave, lovely Esme! "She has come down the +staircase now," I told myself. "She has untied Marie-Jeanne. She has +gone out and started the car." What would she think of my +disappearance? Well, she wouldn't misjudge me, I felt sure; and +neither would Jean-Herve-Marie-Olivier. He would know that I was +acting as, in my place, he would have acted, that I didn't mean to let +Franz von Blenheim defy France and go off untouched. + +The whole world seemed mysteriously to have narrowed to one girl, +Esme. How I had lived before I saw her; how, having seen her, I could +ever have lived without her,--I didn't know. But the sound of grinding +brakes roused me. We were slowing up in obedience to a signal from a +canvas-covered, half-demolished shelter filled with men in blue +uniforms; we were coming to a standstill. Blenheim leaned out, and for +a moment I saw his face in the beam of light from the sentry's +lantern. It looked thin and set. He was giving beneath the strain. + +"Behold my comrade!" He thrust our papers into the hands of the +sentry. "And make haste, for the love of heaven! We are waited for +/la-bas/." + +I cast a quick glance at my body-guard, whose anxious eyes were on the +sentinel. His pistol still lay against my side, but his thoughts were +far away. It was the moment. With the rapidity of lightning I knocked +his arm up, caught his wrist, and clung to it, calling out +simultaneously in a voice of crisp command. + +"My friends," I cried in French, "I order you to arrest these persons! +They are agents of the kaiser! They are German spies!" + +The pistol, clutched between us, exploded harmlessly into the air. I +head shouts, saw men running toward us. Then I caught sight of +Blenheim's face, dark and oddly contorted; he had turned and was +leveling his revolver at me, resting one knee on the driver's seat as +he took deliberate aim. + +"I say," I cried again, struggling for the weapon, "that this is Franz +von Blenheim, that these are men of the kaiser, spying, in disguise--" + +It seemed to me that some one caught Blenheim's arm from behind just +as he fired; but I was not certain. For suddenly that same whistling +shriek sounded over us, nearer this time, more ominous; the earth +seemed to rock and then to end in a mighty shock and cataclysm. +Blackness enveloped me, and I dropped into a bottomless pit. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +AT RAINCY-LA-TOUR + +When I opened my eyes it was with a peculiarly reluctant feeling, for +my eyelids were so heavy that they seemed to weigh a ton. My head was +unspeakably groggy, and I had quite lost my memory. I couldn't, if +suddenly interrogated, have replied with one intelligent bit of +information about myself, not even with my name. + +Flat on my back I was lying, gazing up at what, surprisingly, seemed +to be a ceiling festooned with garlands of roses and painted with +ladies and cavaliers, idling about a stretch of greensward, decidedly +in the Watteau style. Where was I? What had happened to make me feel +so helpless? It reminded me of an episode of my childhood, a day when +my pony had fallen and rolled upon me, and I had been carried home +with two crushed ribs and a broken arm. + +Coming out at that time from the influence of the ether, I had found +Dunny at my bedside. If only he were here now! I looked round. Why, +there he was, sitting in a brocaded chair by the window, his dear old +silver head thrown back, dozing beyond a doubt. + +To see him gave me a warm, comforted, homelike feeling. Nor did it +surprise me, but my surroundings did. The room, a veritable Louis +Quinze jewel in its paneling, carving, and gilding, might have come +direct from Versailles by parcel post; my bed was garlanded and +curtained in rose-color. Where I had gone to sleep last night I +couldn't remember; but it hadn't, I was obstinately sure, been here. + +What ailed me, anyhow? I began a series of cautious experiments, +designed to discover the trouble. My arms were weak and of a strange, +flabby limpness, but they moved. So did my left leg; but when I came +to the right one I was baffled. It wouldn't stir; it was heavily +encased in something. Good heavens! now I knew! It was in a plaster +cast. + +The shock of the discovery taught me something further, namely, that +my head was liable to excruciating little throbs of pain. I raised a +hand to it. My forehead was swathed in bandages, like a turbaned +Turk's. Oh, to be sure, in the castle at Prezelay, as we were +retreating up the staircase, Schwartzmann had fired at me; but, then, +hadn't that been a pin prick, the merest scratch? + +The name Prezelay served as a key to solve the puzzle. The whole +fantastic, incredible chain of happenings came back to me in a rush; +the gray car, the inn, the murder, the night in the castle, Jean- +Herve-Marie-Olivier. + +"Dunny!" I heard myself quavering in a voice utterly unlike my own. + +The figure in the chair started up and hurried toward me, and then +Dunny's hands were holding my hands, his eyes looking into mine. + +"There, Dev, there! Take it easy," the familiar voice was soothing me. +"Hold on to me, my boy, You are safe now. You're all right!" + +My safety, however, seemed of small importance for the time being. + +"Dunny," I implored, "listen! You have got to find out for me about a +girl. How am I to tell you, though? If I start the story, you'll think +I'm raving." + +"I know all about it, Dev," my guardian reassured me. "I've seen Miss +Falconer. She's absolutely safe." + +If that were so, I could relax, and I did with fervent thankfulness. +Not for long, however; my brain had begun to work. + +"See here! I want to know who has been playing football with me," was +my next demand, which Dunny answered obligingly, if with a slightly +dubious face. + +"That French doctor, nice young chap, said you weren't to talk," he +muttered, "but if I were in your place I'd want to know a few things +myself. It was this way, Dev. A fragment of a shell struck you--" + +"A fragment!" I raised weak eyebrows. "I know better. Twenty shells at +least, and whole!" + +"--and didn't strike your Teuton friends," he charged on, suddenly +purple of visage. "It was a true German shell, my boy, the devil +looking after his own. The man in the seat with you was cut up a bit; +the other two were thrown clear of the motor. If you hadn't already +given the alarm, they would probably have got off scot-free. As it +was, the French held a drumhead court martial a little later, and all +three of the fellows--well, you can fill in the rest." + +I was silent for a minute while a picture rose before me: a dank, gray +dawn; a firing-squad, and Franz von Blenheim's dark, grim face. No +doubt he had died bravely; but I could not pity him; I had too clear a +recollection of the hall at Prezelay. + +"As for you," Dunny was continuing, "you seem to have puzzled them +finely. There you were in a French uniform, at your last gasp +apparently, and with an American passport, that you seem to have clung +to through thick and thin, inside your coat. They took a chance on +you, though, because you had made them a present of the Franz von +Blenheim; and by the next day, thanks to Miss Falconer and the Duke of +Raincy-la-Tour, you were being looked for all over France. + +"So that's how it stands. You're at Raincy-la-Tour now, at the duke's +chateau. The place has been a hospital ever since the war began. Only +you're not with the other wounded. You are--well--a rather special +patient in the pavilion across the lake; and you're by way of being a +hero. The day I landed, the first paper I saw shrieked at me how you +had tracked the kaiser's star agent and outwitted him and handed him +over to justice." + +"The deuce it did!" I exclaimed. "You must have been puffed up with +pride." + +My guardian's jaw set itself rigidly. "I was too busy," was his grim +answer. "You see, the end of the statement said there was no hope that +you could survive. And when I got here I found you with fever, +delirium, one leg shot up, four bits of shell in your head, a fine +case of brain concussion. That was nearly three weeks ago, and it +seems more like three years!" + +An idea, at this point, made me fix a searching gaze on him. + +"By the way," I asked accusingly, "how did you happen to arrive so +opportunely on this side? It seemed as natural as possible to find you +settled here waiting for my eyes to open; but on second thoughts I +suppose you didn't fly?" + +He looked extraordinarily embarrassed. + +"Why," he growled at length, "I had business. I got a cablegram soon +after you left New York. The thing was confoundedly inconvenient, but +I had no choice about it." + +"Dunny," I said weakly, but sternly, "you didn't bring me up to tell +whoppers, not bare-faced ones like that, anyhow, that wouldn't deceive +the veriest child. What earthly business could you have over here in +war-time? Own up, now, and take your medicine like a man." + +His guilty air was sufficient answer. + +"Well, Dev," he acknowledged, "it was your cable. That Gibraltar mess +was a nasty one, and I didn't like its looks. I'm getting old, and +you're all I've got; so I took a passport and caught the /Rochambeau/. +Not, of course, that I doubted your ability to take care of yourself, +my boy--" + +"Didn't you? You might have," I admitted with some ruefulness, "if you +had known I was bucking both the Allied governments and the picked +talent of the Central powers. It was too much. I was riding for a +fall, and I got it. But I don't mind saying, Dunny, I'm infernally +glad you came." + +He wiped his eyes. + +"Well, you go to sleep now," he counseled gruffly. "You've got to get +well in a hurry; there's work for you to do! All sorts of things have +been happening since that /obus/ knocked you out. Just a week ago, for +instance, the President went before Congress and--" + +"What's that you say? Not war?" + +"Yes, war, young man! We're in it at last, up to our necks; in it with +men and ships and munitions and foodstuffs and everything else we have +to help with, praise the Lord! You'll fight beneath the Stars and +Stripes, instead of under the Tricolor. I say, Dev, that's positively +the last word I'll utter. You've got to rest!" + +In a weak, quavering fashion, but with sincere enthusiasm, I tried to +celebrate by singing a few bars of the "Star-Spangled Banner" and a +little of the "Marseillaise." Dunny was right, however; the +conversation had exhausted me. In the midst of my patriotic +demonstration I fell asleep. + +My convalescence was a marvel, I learned from young Dr. Raimbault, the +surgeon from the chateau who came to see me every day. According to +him, I was a patient in a hundred, in a thousand; he never wearied of +admiring my constitution, which he described by the various French +equivalents of "as hard as nails." Not a set-back attended the course +of my recovery. First, I sat propped up in bed; then I attained the +dignity of an arm-chair; later, slowly and painfully, I began to drag +myself about the room. But the day on which my physician's rapture +burst all bounds was the great one when I crawled from the pavilion, +gained a bench beneath the trees, and sat enthroned, glaring at my +crutches. They were detestable implements; I longed to smash them. And +they would, the doctor airily informed me, be my portion for three +months. + +To feel grumpy in such surroundings was certainly black ingratitude. +It was an idyllic place. My pavilion was a sort of Trianon, a Marie +Antoinette bower, all flowers and gold. Fresh green woods grew about +it; a lake stretched before it; swans dotted the water where trees +were mirrored, and there were marble steps and balustrades. Across +this glittering expanse rose Raincy-la-Tour, proud and stately, with +its formal gardens and its fountains and its Versailles-like front. In +the afternoons I could see the wounded soldiers walking there or being +pushed to and fro in wheel-chairs; legless and armless, some of them; +wreckage of the mighty battle-fields; timely reminders, poor heroic +fellows, that there were people in the world a great deal worse off +than I. + +Yet, instead of being thankful, I was profoundly wretched. I moped and +sulked; I fell each day into a deeper, more consistent gloom. I tried +grimly to regain my strength, with a view to seeking other quarters. +While I stayed here I was the guest of the Firefly of France; and +though I admired him,--I should have been a cad, a quitter, a poor +loser, everything I had ever held anathema in days gone by, not to do +so,--still I couldn't feel toward him as a man should feel toward his +host; not in the least! + +On three separate occasions Dunny motored up to Paris, bringing back +as the fruits of his first excursion my baggage from the Ritz. I was +clothed again, in my right mind; except for my swathed head, I looked +highly civilized. The day when I had raced hither and yon, and fought +an unbelievable battle in a dark hall, and insanely masqueraded first +in a leather coat, then in a pale-blue uniform, seemed dim and far-off +indeed. + +"It was a nice hashish dream," I told my mirrored image. "But it +wasn't real, my lad, for a moment; such things don't happen to folks +like you. You're not the romantic type; you don't look like some one +in an old picture; you haven't brought down thirty German aeroplanes +or thereabouts, and won every war medal the French can give and the +name of Ace. No; you look like a--a correct bulldog; and winning an +occasional polo cup is about your limit. Even if it hadn't been +settled before you met her, you wouldn't have stood a chance." + +There were times when I prayed never to see Esme Falconer again. There +were other times when I knew I would drag myself round the world--yes, +on my crutches!--if at the end of the journey I could see her for an +instant, a long way off. I could see that my despondency was driving +Dunny to distraction. He evolved the theory that I was going into a +decline. + +Then came the afternoon that made history. I was sitting at my window. +The trees seemed specially green, the sky specially blue, the lake +specially bright. I was feeling stronger and was glumly planning a +move to Paris when I saw an automobile speed up the poplared walk +toward Raincy-la-Tour. + +Rip-snorting and chugging, the thing executed a curve before the +chateau, and then, hugging the side of the lake, advanced, obviously +toward my humble abode. My heart seemed to turn a somersault. I should +have known that car if I had met it in Bagdad. It was a long blue +motor, polished to the last notch, deeply cushioned, luxurious, +poignantly familiar, the car, in short, that I had pursued to Bleau, +and that later, in flat defiance of President Poincare or the +Generalissimo of France, or whoever makes army rules and regulations, +I had guided through the war zone to the castle of Prezelay. + +As the chauffeur halted it near the pavilion, it disgorged three +occupants, one of who, a young officer, slender of form and gracefully +alert of movement, wore the dark-blue uniform of the French Flying +Corps. I knew him only too well. It was Jean-Herve-Marie-Olivier. But +the glance I gave him was most cursory; my attention was focused +hungrily on the two ladies in the tonneau. They had risen and were +divesting themselves in leisurely fashion of a most complicated +arrangement of motor coats and veils. + +From these swathing disguises there first emerged, as if from a +chrysalis, a black-clad, distinguished-looking young woman whom I had +never seen before. However, it was the second figure, the one in the +rosy veils and the tan mantle, that was exciting me. Off came her +wrappings, and I saw a girl in a white gown and a flowered hat--the +loveliest girl on earth. + +I did not stand on the order of my going. I rocked perilously, and my +crutches made a furious clatter, but I was outside in a truly +infinitesimal space of time. Yes; there they were, chatting with +Dunny, who had hurried to meet them. And at sight of me the Firefly of +France ran forward with hands extended, greeting me as if I were his +oldest friend, his brother, his dearest comrade in arms. + +I took his hands and I pressed them with what show of warmth I could +summon. It was as peasant as a bit of torture, but it had to be gone +through. Then I stared past him toward the ladies, who were coming up +with Dunny; and except for that girl in white, I saw nothing in all +the world. + +"Monsieur," the duke was saying, "I pay you my first visit. Only my +weakness has prevented me from sooner welcoming to Raincy-la-Tour so +honored a guest." + +He turned to the lady who stood beside Miss Falconer, a slender, dark- +eyed, gracious young woman wearing a simple black gown and a black hat +and a string of pearls. + +"Here is another," said the Firefly, "who has come to welcome you. Oh, +yes, Monsieur, you must know, and you must count henceforth as your +friends in any need, even to the death, all those who bear the name of +Raincy-la-Tour. Permit that I present you to my wife, who is of your +country." + +"Jean's wife is my sister, Mr. Bayne," Miss Falconer said. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +AN UNEXPECTED VISIT + +I don't know what they thought of me, probably that I was crazy. For a +good minute, a long sixty seconds, I simply stood and stared. The +duke's blue uniform, his wife's black-gowned figure, and the white, +radiant blur that was Miss Falconer revolved about me in spinning, +starry circles. I gasped, put out a hand, fortunately encountered +Dunny's shoulder, and, leaning heavily on that perplexed person, at +last got back my intelligence and my breath. + +"Won't you shake hands with me, Mr. Bayne?" smiled the Duchess of +Raincy-la-Tour. + +I was virtually sane again. + +"I do hope," I said, "that you will forgive me. Not that I see the +slightest reason why you should, I am sure. Life is too short to wipe +out such a bad impression. I know how you'll remember me all your +days; as an idiot with a head done up in layers of toweling, wobbling +on two crutches and gaping at you like a fish." + +But the duchess was still holding my hand in both of hers and smiling +up at me from a pair of great, dark, tender eyes, the loveliest pair +of eyes in the world, bar one. No, bar none, to be quite fair. The +Firefly's wife, most people would have said, was more beautiful than +her sister; but then, beauty is what pleases you, as some wise man +remarked long ago. + +"I don't believe, Mr. Bayne," she was saying gently, "that I shall +ever remember you in any unpleasant way. You see, I know about those +bandages, and I know why you need those crutches. Even if you were +vain, you wouldn't mind the things I think of you--not at all." + +I lack any clear recollection of the quarter of an hour that followed. +I know that we talked and laughed and were very friendly and very +cheerful, and that Dunny's eyes, as they studied me, began to hold a +gleam of intelligence, as if he were guessing something about the +reasons for my former black despondency. I recall that the duke's hand +was on my shoulder, and that--odd how one's attitude can change!--I +liked to feel it. We were going to be great friends, tremendous pals, +I suspected. And every time I looked at the duchess she seemed +lovelier, more gracious; she was the very wife I would have chosen for +such a corking chap. + +This, however, was by the way. None of it really mattered. While I +paid compliments and supplied details as to my convalescence and +answered Dunny's chaffing, I saw only one member of the party, the +girl in white. She was rather silent; she gave me only fugitive +glances. But she wasn't engaged, at least not to the Firefly. Hurrah! + +What an agonizing, heart-rending, utterly unnecessary experience I had +endured, now that I thought of it! I had jumped to conclusions with +the agility of a kangaroo. He had kissed her; she had allowed it. Did +that prove that he was her fiance? He might have been anything--her +cousin or an old friend of her childhood, or her sister's husband's +nephew. But brother-in-law was best of all, not too remote or yet too +close. In that relationship, I decided, he was ideal. + +By this time I was wondering how long we were to stand here exchanging +ideas and persiflage, an animated group of five. The duke and duchess +were charming, but I had had enough of them; I could have spared even +good old Dunny; what I wanted, and wanted frantically, was a tete-a- +tete; just Esme Falconer and myself. When I saw two automobiles, +packed imposingly with uniformed figures, speed up the drive to the +chateau, hope stirred in me. With suppressed joy,--I trust it was +suppressed,--I heard the duke exclaim that this was General Le Cazeau, +due to visit the hospital with his staff and greet the wounded and +bestow on certain lucky beings the reward of their valor in the shape +of medals of war. Obviously, it would have been inexcusable for the +master and mistress of Raincy-la-Tour to ignore a visitor so +distinguished. I made no protest whatever as they turned to go. + +"But, Miss Falconer," I implored fervently, "you won't desert me, will +you? Pity a poor /blesse/ that no general cares two straws to see!" + +She smiled, an omen that encouraged me to send Dunny a look of +meaning; but my guardian, bless him, had grasped the situation; he was +already gone. + +Down by the water among the trees there was a marble bench, and with +one accord we turned our steps that way. I emphasized my game leg +shamelessly; I positively flourished my crutches. My battle scars, I +guessed from the girl's kind eyes, appealed to her compassion, and as +soon as I suspected this I thanked my stars for that German shell. + +"Isn't there anything," she said as we sat down, "that you want to ask +me? I think I should be curious if I were you. After all we have done +together there isn't much beyond my name that you know of me, and you +knew that in Jersey City the night the /Re d'Italia/ sailed." + +I shook my head. + +"There is just one thing I wanted to know," I answered cryptically, +"and I learned that when your brother-in-law presented me to his wife. +Still, there is nothing on earth you can tell me that I shan't be glad +to listen to. Say the multiplication table if you like, or recite +cook-book recipes. Anything--if you'll only stay!" + +Little golden flickers of sunshine came stealing through the branches, +dancing, as the girl talked, on her gown and in her hair. I looked +more than I listened. I had been starved for a sight of her. And my +eyes must have told my thoughts; for a flush crept into her cheeks, +and her lashes fluttered, and she looked not at me, but across the +swan-dotted lake toward the towers of Raincy-la-Tour. + +After all there was little that I had not guessed already; but each +detail held its magic, because it was she who spoke. If she had said +"I like oranges and lemons," the statement would have held me +spellbound. I sat raptly gazing while she told me of herself and her +sister Enid; of their life, after the death of their parents, with an +aunt whose home was in Pittsburgh, of their travels; and of a winter +at Nice, four years ago, when the blue of the skies and seas and the +whiteness of the sands and the green of the palms had all seemed +created to frame the meeting and the love affair of Enid Falconer and +the young nobleman who was now known to the world as the Firefly of +France. + +Their marriage had proved an ideal one, as happy as it was brilliant. +Esme, thereafter had spent half her time in Europe with her sister, +half in America with her aunt, who was growing old. Then had come the +war. At first it had covered the duke with laurels. But a certain dark +day had brought a cable from the duchess, telling of his disappearance +and the suspicion that surrounded it; and Esme, despite her aunt's +entreaties, had promptly taken passage on the next ship that sailed. + +"I had meant to go within a month, as a Red Cross nurse," she told me. +"I had my passport, and I had taken a course. Well, I came on to New +York and spent the night there. Aunt Alice telegraphed to her lawyer, +the dearest, primmest old fellow, and he dined with me, protesting all +the time against my sailing. I saw you in the St. Ives restaurant. Did +you see us?" + +"Let me think." I pretended to rack my brains. "I believe I do recall +something, in a hazy sort of way. You had on a rose-colored gown that +was distinctly wonderful, and when we tracked the German to the door +of your room, you were wearing an evening coat, bright blue. But the +main thing was your hair!" Here I became lyric. "An oak-leaf in the +sunlight, Miss Falconer! Threads of gold!" + +But she ignored me, very properly, and shifted the scene from hotel to +steamer, where Franz von Blenheim, in the guise of Van Blarcom, had +given her a fright. As she exhibited her passport at the gang-plank, +he had read her name across her shoulder; then he had claimed +acquaintance with her, a claim that she knew was false. + +"And he wasn't impertinent. That was the worst of it," she faltered. +"He did it--well--accusingly. I had known all along that any one who +knew of Jean's marriage would recognize my name. And Jean was +suspected, and the French are strict; if they were warned, they would +not let me enter France; they would think I had come spying. I was +afraid. Then, after dinner, I went on deck and found you standing by +the railing reading that paper with its staring headlines about Jean." + +"Of course!" I exclaimed. At last I fathomed that puzzling episode. +"You thought the paper might speak of the duke's marriage, that it +might mention your sister's name. In that case, if it stayed on board, +it might be seen by the captain or by an officer, and they would guess +who you were and warn the authorities when we got to shore." + +"Yes. That was why I borrowed it. And I was right, I discovered; just +at the end the account said that Jean had married an American, a Miss +Enid Falconer, four years ago. Then I asked you to throw it overboard, +Mr. Bayne; and you were wonderful. You must have thought I was mad, +but you didn't flutter an eyelid or even smile. I have never forgotten +--and I've never forgiven myself either. When I think of how the +steward saw you and told the captain, and of how they searched your +baggage that dreadful day--" + +"It didn't matter a brass farden!" I hastened to assure her, for she +had paused and was gazing at me, large-eyed and pale. "Don't think of +that any more. Suppose we skip to Paris! Blenheim followed you there, +hoping he was on the scent of the vanished papers; and when you +arrived at the rue St.-Dominique, there was still no news of the +duke." + +"No news," she mourned; "not a word. And Enid was ill and hopeless; +from the very first she had felt sure that Jean was dead. But I +wouldn't admit it. I said we must try to find him. All the way over in +the steamer I had been making a sort of plan. + +"You see, one of the papers had described how the French had found +Jean's airship lying in the forest of La Fay, as if he had abandoned +it from choice. That was considered proof of his treason; but of +course I knew that it wasn't. I remembered that the Marquis of +Prezelay, Jean's cousin, had a castle on the forest outskirts; I had +been to visit it with Jean and Enid. I wondered if he might be there. + +"The more I thought of it, the likelier it seemed. If he had been +wounded and had wanted to hide his papers, he would have remembered +the castle and the secret panel in the wall. Even if he were--dead, +which I wouldn't believe, it would clear his name if I found the proof +of it. So I told Enid I would go to Prezelay." + +I was resting my arms on my knees and groaning softly. + +"Oh, Lord, oh, Lord!" I murmured, wishing I could stop my ears. When I +thought of that brave venture of the girl's and its perils and what +had nearly come of it I found myself shuddering; and yet I was growing +prouder of her with every word. + +"What comes next," she confessed, "is terrible. I can hardly believe +it. As I look back, it seems to me that we were all a little mad. To +get through the war zone to Prezelay I had to have certain papers; and +I got them from an American girl, an old friend of Enid's and of mine, +Marie Le Clair. The morning I arrived in Paris she came to say good- +bye to Enid. She was acting as a Red Cross nurse, and they were +sending her to the hospital at Carrefonds to take the first +consignment of the great new remedy for burns and scars. Carrefonds is +very near Prezelay. It all came to me in a moment. I told her how +matters stood and how Enid was dying little by little, just for lack +of any sure knowledge. She gave me the papers she had for herself and +her chauffeur, Jacques Carton, and I used them for myself and for +Georges, Jean's foster-brother, who was at home from the Front on +leave and was staying in his old room at the house." + +"Great Caesar's ghost!" I sputtered. "You didn't--you don't mean to +say that-- Why, good heavens, didn't you know--?" + +Then I petered off into silence; words were too weak for my emotions. +She had seen the risk of course, and so had the girl who had helped +her; but with the incredible bravery of women, they had acted with +open eyes. + +"Yes," she faltered; "I told you I felt mad, looking back at it. But +Marie is safe now; Jean has worked for her, and his relatives and +friends have helped, and the minister of war. It was the only way. +Under my own name I could never have got leave to enter the war zone +while Jean was missing and suspected-- What is the matter, Mr. Bayne?" +For once more I had groaned aloud. + +"Simply," I cried stormily, "that I can't bear thinking of it! The +idea of your taking risks, of your daring the police and the Germans-- +you who oughtn't to know what the word danger means! I tell you I +can't stand it. Wasn't there some man to do it for you? Well, it's +over now; and in the future-- See here, Miss Falconer, I can't wait +any longer. There is something I've got to say." + +But I was not to say it yet, for, behold! just as my tongue was +loosened, I became aware of a most distinguished galaxy approaching us +round the lake. All save one of its members--Dunny, to be exact--were +in uniform; and the personage in the lead, walking between my guardian +and the duke of Raincy-la-Tour, was truly dazzling, being arrayed in a +blue coat and spectacularly red trousers and wearing as a finishing +touch a red cap freely braided with gold. Miss Falconer had risen. + +"Why," she exclaimed, "it is General Le Cazeau!" + +"Then confound General Le Cazeau!" was my inhospitably cry. + +He was, I saw when he drew close, a person of stately dignity, as +indeed the hero who had saved Merlancourt and broken that last +furious, desperate, senseless onslaught of the Boches ought by rights +to be. Perhaps his splendor made me nervous. At any rate, my +conscience smote me. I remembered with sudden panic all my manifold +transgressions, beginning with the hour when I had chucked reason +overboard and had deliberately concealed a murdered man's body beneath +a heap of straw. + +"I believe," I gasped, "that this is an informal court martial. Nobody +could do the things I have done and be allowed to live. Still, I don't +see why they cured me if they were going to hang or shoot me." + +I struggled up with the help of my crutches and stood waiting my doom. + +The group had paused before us, and presentations followed, throughout +which the master of ceremonies was the Firefly of France. Then the +gray-headed general fixed me with a keen, stern gaze rather like an +eagle's. + +"Your affair, Monsieur, has been of an irregularity," he said. + +As with kaleidoscopic swiftness the details of my "affair" passed +through my memory, it was only by an effort that I restrained an +indecorous shout. He was correct. I could call to mind no single +feature that had been "regular," from the thief who was not a thief +and had flown out of my window like a conjurer, to the fight in +Prezelay castle where I had vanquished four husky Germans, mostly by +the aid of a wooden table, of all implements on earth. + +"It is too true, /Monsieur le General/," I assented promptly. My +humility seemed to soften him; he relaxed; he even approached a smile. + +"Of an irregularity," he repeated. "But also it was of a gallantry. +With a boldness and a resource and a scorn for danger that, permit me +to say, mark your compatriots, you have unmasked and handed over to us +one of our most dangerous foes. For such service as you have rendered +France is never ungrateful. And, moreover, there have been friends to +plead your cause and to plead it well." + +As he ended he cast a glance at the Duke of Raincy-la-Tour and one at +Dunny, whereupon I was enlightened as to the purpose of my guardian's +three trips to Paris the preceding week. I believe I have said before +that Dunny knows every one, everywhere; in fact, I have always felt +that should circumstances conspire to make me temporarily adopt a life +of crime, he could manage to pull such wires as would reinstate me in +the public eye. But the general was stepping close to me. + +"Monsieur," he was saying, "we are now allies, my country and the +great nation of which you are a son. Very soon your troops are coming. +You will fight on our soil, beneath your own banner. But your first +blood was shed for France, your first wounds borne for her, Monsieur; +and in gratitude she offers you this medal of her brave." + +He was pinning something to my coat, a bronze-colored, cross-shaped +something, a decoration that swung proudly from a ribbon of red and +green. I knew it well; I had seen it on the breasts of generals, +captains, simple poilus, all the picked flower of the French nation. +With a thrill I looked down upon it. It was the Cross of War. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A THUNDERBOLT OF WAR + +The great moment had arrived. General Le Cazeau and his staff were on +their way back to Paris. The duke and duchess were at the chateau +talking with the /blesses/; for the second time Dunny had tactfully +disappeared. The approach of evening had spurred my faltering courage. +As the first rosiness of sunset touched the skies beyond Raincy-la- +Tour and lay across the water, I sat at the side of the only girl in +the world and poured out my plea. + +"It isn't fair, you know," I mourned. "I've only a few minutes. I +shouldn't wonder if we heard your car honking for you in half an hour. +To make a girl like you look at a man like me would take days of +eloquence, and, besides, who would think of marrying any one with his +head bound up Turkish fashion as mine is now?" + +She laughed, and at the silvery sound of it I plucked up a hint of +courage; for surely, I thought, she wasn't cruel enough to make game +of me as she turned me down. Still, I couldn't really hope. She was +too wonderful, and my courtship had been too inadequate. Despondent, +arms on my knees, I harped upon the same string. + +"I've never had a chance to show you," I lamented, "that I am +civilized; that I know how to take care of you and put cushions behind +you and slide footstools under your feet, and--er--all that. We've +been too busy eluding Germans and racing through forbidden zones and +rescuing papers from behind secret panels, for me to wait on you. Good +heavens! To think how I've done my duty by a hundred girls I shouldn't +know from Eve if they happened along this moment! And I've never even +sent you a box of /marrons glaces/ or flowers." + +She shot a fleeting glance at me. + +"No," she agreed, "you haven't! If you don't mind my saying so, I +think they would have been out of place. At Bleau, for instance, and +at Prezelay I hadn't much time for eating bonbons; but after all you +did me one or two more practical services, Mr. Bayne." + +"Nothing," I maintained, my gloom unabated, "that amounted to a row of +pins. Though I might have shone, I'll admit; I can see that, looking +back. The opportunity was there, but the man was lacking. I might have +been a real movie hero, cool, resourceful, dependable, clear-sighted, +a tower of strength; and what I did was to muddle things up hopelessly +and waste time in suspecting you and seize every opportunity of +trusting people who positively spread their guilt before my eyes." + +"I don't know." She was looking at the lake, not at me, and she was +smiling. "There were one or two little matters that have slipped your +mind, perhaps. Take the very first night we met, when you tracked your +thief to my room and wouldn't let the hotel people come in to search +it. Don't you think, on the whole, that you were rather kind?" + +"I couldn't have driven them in," I declared stubbornly, "with a +pitchfork. I couldn't have persuaded them to make a search if I had +prayed them on my bended knees. Their one idea was to help the fellow +in what the best criminal circles call a getaway; and when I think how +I must have been wool-gathering, not to guess--" + +"Well, even so,"--Miss Falconer was still smiling--"weren't you very +nice on the steamer? About the extra, I mean. And at Gibraltar, too, +when they asked you what you had thrown overboard--do you remember how +you kept silent and never even glanced my way?" + +"No," I groaned, "I don't; but I remember our trip to Paris. I +remember marching you into the wagon-restaurant like a hand-cuffed +criminal, and sitting you down at a table, and bullying you like a +Russian czar. I gave you three days to leave France. Have you +forgotten? I haven't. The one thing I omitted--and I don't see how I +missed it--was to call the gendarmes there at Modane and denounce you +to them. It's more than kind of you to glide over my imbecilities; I +appreciate it. But when I think of that evening I want a nice, deep, +dark dungeon, somewhere underground, to hide." + +"I think," she murmured consolingly, "that you made amends to me +later." Her face was averted, but I could see a distracting dimple in +her cheek. "You mustn't forget that I haven't been perfect, either. +When you followed me to Bleau, and I came down the stairs and saw you, +I misunderstood the situation entirely and was as unpleasant as I +could be." + +"Naturally," I acquiesced with dark meaning. "How could you have +understood it? How could any human being have fathomed the mental +processes that sent me there? I only wonder that instead of giving me +what-for, you didn't murder me. Any United States jury would have +acquitted you with the highest praise." + +She turned upon me, flushed and spirited. + +"Mr. Bayne, you are incorrigible! Why will you insist on belittling +everything that you have done? I suppose you will claim next that you +didn't risk imprisonment or death every minute of a whole day, just to +help me, and that at Prezelay you didn't fight like a--a--yes, like a +paladin!--to save me from being tortured by Herr von Blenheim and his +men!" + +I started up and then sank back. + +"As a special favor," I begged her, "would you mind not mentioning +that last phase of the affair? When you do, I go berserker; I'm a +crazy man, seeing red; I'm honestly not responsible. It was when our +friend Blenheim developed those plans of his that I swore in my soul +I'd get him; and I thank the Lord that I did and that he'll never +trouble you or any other woman again. + +"Still, Miss Falconer, what does all that amount to? Any man would +have helped you, wouldn't he? A nice sort of fellow I should have been +to do any less! Whereas for a girl like you I ought to have +accomplished miracles. I ought to have made the sun stop moving, or +got you the stars to play with, or whisked the moon out of the skies." + +She was laughing again. + +"Dear me!" she exclaimed. "What fervor! Can this be my Mr. Bayne, the +Mr. Bayne of our adventure, who never turned a hair no matter what mad +things happened, and who was always so correct and conventional and so +immaculately dressed, and so--" + +"Stodgy! Say it!" I cried with utter recklessness. "I know I was; +Dunny told me so that evening at the St. Ives. Have as many cracks at +me as you like. I was getting fat; I was beginning to think that the +most important thing in the universe was dinner. Well, I'm not stodgy +any longer, Esme Falconer; you've reformed me. But of all the men in +all the ages who were ever desperately, consumedly, imbecilely in +love--" + +In the distance two figures were strolling toward the blue car, the +duke and the duchess. When they reached it, the Firefly cast a glance +in our direction and sounded a warning, most unwelcome honk upon the +horn. They were going, stony-hearted creatures that they were! They +were taking Esme back to Paris. At the thought I abandoned my last +pretense at self-command. + +"Esme, dearest," I implored, "do you think you could put up with me? +Could you marry me when I've done my part over here--or even sooner-- +right away? A dozen better men may love you, but mine is a special +brand of love--unique, incomparable! Are you going to have me--or +shall I jump into the lake?" + +The sunset light was in her hair and in the gray, starry eyes she +turned to me--those eyes that, because their lashes were so long and +crinkled so maddeningly, were only half revealed. Her lips curved in a +fleeting smile. + +"Oh, you dear, blind, silly man! Do you think any girl could help +loving you--after all that has happened to you and me?" she whispered. + +Then I caught her to me; and despite my crutches and my bandaged head +and that atrocious horn in the distance honking the signal for our +parting, I was the happiest being in France--or in the world. + +"I knew all along it was a dream, and it is! Such things don't really +happen. No such luck!" I cried. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Firefly Of France, by Marion Polk Angellotti + |