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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pawns Count, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
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+Title: The Pawns Count
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9836]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 23, 2003]
+[Date last updated: January 1, 2006]
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+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PAWNS COUNT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Anuradha Valsa Raj
+and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE PAWNS COUNT
+
+BY
+
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+
+1918
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+"I am for England and England only," John Lutchester, the Englishman,
+asserted.
+
+"I am for Japan and Japan only," Nikasti, the Jap, insisted.
+
+"I am for Germany first and America afterwards," Oscar Fischer, the
+German-American pronounced.
+
+"I am for America first, America only, America always," Pamela Van
+Teyl, the American girl, declared.
+
+They were all right except the German-American.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Mefiez-Vous!
+
+Taisez-Vous!
+
+Les Oreilles Ennemies Vous Ecoutent!
+
+The usual little crowd was waiting in the lobby of a fashionable London
+restaurant a few minutes before the popular luncheon hour. Pamela Van
+Teyl, a very beautiful American girl, dressed in the extreme of
+fashion, which she seemed somehow to justify, directed the attention of
+her companions to the notice affixed to the wall facing them.
+
+"Except," she declared, "for you poor dears who have been hurt, that is
+the first thing I have seen in England which makes me realise that you
+are at war."
+
+The younger of her two escorts, Captain Richard Holderness, who wore
+the uniform of a well-known cavalry regiment, glanced at the notice a
+little impatiently.
+
+"What rot it seems!" he exclaimed. "We get fed up with that sort of
+thing in France. It's always the same at every little railway station
+and every little inn. 'Mefiez-vous! Taisez-vous!' They might spare us
+over here."
+
+John Lutchester, a tall, clean-shaven man, dressed in civilian clothes,
+raised his eyeglass and read out the notice languidly.
+
+"Well, I don't know," he observed. "Some of you Service fellows--not
+the Regulars, of course--do gas a good deal when you come back. I don't
+suppose you any of you know anything, so it doesn't really matter," he
+added, glancing at his watch.
+
+"Army's full of Johnnies, who come from God knows where nowadays,"
+Holderness assented gloomily. "No wonder they can't keep their mouths
+shut."
+
+"Seems to me you need them all," Miss Pamela Van Teyl remarked with a
+smile.
+
+"Of course we do," Holderness assented, "and Heaven forbid that any of
+us Regulars should say a word against them. Jolly good stuff in them,
+too, as the Germans found out last month."
+
+"All the same," Lutchester continued, still studying the notice, "news
+does run over London like quicksilver. If you step down to the American
+bar here, for instance, you'll find that Charles is one of the
+best-informed men about the war in London. He has patrons in the Army,
+in the Navy, and in the Flying Corps, and it's astonishing how
+communicative they seem to become after the second or third cocktail."
+
+"Cocktail, mark you, Miss Van Teyl," Holderness pointed out. "We poor
+Englishmen could keep our tongues from wagging before we acquired some
+of your American habits."
+
+"The habits are all right," Pamela retorted. "It's your heads that are
+wrong."
+
+"The most valued product of your country," Lutchester murmured, "is
+more dangerous to our hearts than to our heads."
+
+She made a little grimace and turned away, holding out her hand to a
+new arrival--a tall, broad-shouldered man, with a strong, cold face and
+keen, grey eyes, aggressive even behind his gold-rimmed spectacles.
+There was a queer change in his face as his eyes met Pamela's. He
+seemed suddenly to become more human. His pleasure at seeing her was
+certainly more than the usual transatlantic politeness.
+
+"Mr. Fischer," she exclaimed, "they are saying hard things about our
+country! Please protect me."
+
+He bowed over her fingers. Then he looked up. His tone was impressive.
+
+"If I thought that you needed protection, Miss Van Teyl--"
+
+"Well, I can assure you that I do," she interrupted, laughing. "You
+know my friends, don't you?"
+
+"I think I have that pleasure," the American replied, shaking hands
+with Lutchester and Holderness.
+
+"Now we'll get an independent opinion," the former observed, pointing
+to the wall. "We were discussing that notice, Mr. Fischer. You're
+almost as much a Londoner as a New Yorker. What do you think?--is it
+superfluous or not?"
+
+Fischer read it out and smiled.
+
+"Well," he admitted, "in America we don't lay much store by that sort
+of thing, but I don't know as we're very good judges about what goes on
+over here. I shouldn't call this place, anyway, a hotbed of intrigue.
+Excuse me!"
+
+He moved off to greet some incoming guests--a well-known stockbroker
+and his partner. Lutchester looked after him curiously.
+
+"Is Mr. Fischer one of your typical millionaires, Miss Van Teyl?" he
+asked.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"We have no typical millionaires," she assured him. "They come from all
+classes and all States."
+
+"Fischer is a Westerner, isn't he?"
+
+Pamela nodded, but did not pursue the conversation. Her eyes were fixed
+upon a girl who had just entered, and who was looking a little
+doubtfully around, a girl plainly but smartly dressed, with fluffy
+light hair, dark eyes, and a very pleasant expression. Pamela, who was
+critical of her own sex, found the newcomer attractive.
+
+"Is that, by any chance, one of our missing guests, Captain
+Holderness?" she inquired, turning towards him. "I don't know why, but
+I have an idea that it is your sister."
+
+"By Jove, yes!" the young man assented, stepping forward. "Here we are,
+Molly, and at last you are going to meet Miss Van Teyl. I've bored
+Molly stiff, talking about you," he explained, as Pamela held out her
+hand.
+
+The girls, who stood talking together for a moment, presented rather a
+striking contrast. Molly Holderness was pretty but usual. Pamela was
+beautiful and unusual. She had the long, slim body of a New York girl,
+the complexion and eyes of a Southerner, the savoir faire of a
+Frenchwoman. She was extraordinarily cosmopolitan, and yet
+extraordinarily American. She impressed every one, as she did Molly
+Holderness at that moment, with a sense of charm. One could almost
+accept as truth her own statement--that she valued her looks chiefly
+because they helped people to forget that she had brains.
+
+"I won't admit that I have ever been bored, Miss Van Teyl," Molly
+Holderness assured her, "but Dick has certainly told me all sorts of
+wonderful things about you--how kind you were in New York, and what a
+delightful surprise it was to see you down at the hospital at Nice. I
+am afraid he must have been a terrible crock then."
+
+"Got well in no time as soon as Miss Van Teyl came along," Holderness
+declared. "It was a bit dreary down there at first. None of my lot were
+sent south, and a familiar face means a good deal when you've got your
+lungs full of that rotten gas and are feeling like nothing on earth. I
+wonder where that idiot Sandy is. I told him to be here a quarter of an
+hour before you others--thought we might have had a quiet chat first.
+Will you stand by the girls for a moment, Lutchester, while I have a
+look round?" he added.
+
+He hobbled away, one of the thousands who were thronging the streets
+and public places of London--brave, simple-minded young men, all of
+them, with tangled recollections in their brains of blood and fire and
+hell, and a game leg or a lost arm to remind them that the whole thing
+was not a nightmare. He looked a little disconsolately around, and was
+on the point of rejoining the others when the friend for whom he was
+searching came hurriedly through the turnstile doors.
+
+"Sandy, old chap," Holderness exclaimed, with an air of relief, "here
+you are at last!"
+
+"Cheero, Dick!" was the light-hearted reply. "Fearfully sorry I'm late,
+but listen--just listen for one moment."
+
+The newcomer threw his hat and coat to the attendant. He was a rather
+short, freckled young man, with a broad, high forehead and
+light-coloured hair. His eyes just now were filled with the enthusiasm
+which trembled in his tone.
+
+"Dick," he continued, gripping his friend's arm tightly, "I'm late, I
+know, but I've great news. I've motored straight up from Salisbury
+Plain. I've done it! I swear to you, Dick, I've done it!"
+
+"Done what?" Holderness demanded, a little bewildered.
+
+"I've perfected my explosive--the thing I was telling you about last
+week," was the triumphant reply. "The whole world's struggling for it,
+Dick. The German chemists have been working night and day for three
+years, just for one little formula, and I've got it! One of my shells,
+which fell in a wood at daylight this morning, killed every living
+thing within a mile of it. The bark fell off the trees, and the
+labourers in a field beyond threw down their implements and ran for
+their lives. It's the principle of intensification. The poison feeds on
+its own vapours. The formula--I've got it in my pocket-book--"
+
+"Look here, old fellow," Holderness interrupted, "it's all splendid, of
+course, and I'm dying to hear you talk about it, but come along now and
+be introduced to Miss Van Teyl. Molly's over there, waiting, and we're
+all half starved."
+
+"So am I," was the cheerful answer. "Hullo, Lutchester, how are you?
+Just one moment. I must get a wash, I motored straight through, and I'm
+choked with dust. Where do I go?"
+
+"I'll show you," Lutchester volunteered. "Hurry up."
+
+The two men sprang up the stairs towards the dressing-room, and
+Holderness strolled back to where his sister and Pamela were talking to
+a small, dark young man, with rather high cheek-bones and olive
+complexion. Pamela turned around with a smile.
+
+"I have found an old friend," she told him. "Baron Sunyea--Captain
+Holderness. Baron Sunyea used to be in the Japanese Embassy at
+Washington."
+
+The two men shook hands.
+
+"I was interested," the Japanese said slowly, "in your conversation
+just now about that notice. Your young friend was telling you news very
+loudly indeed, it seemed to me, which you would not like known across
+the North Sea. Am I not right?"
+
+"In a sense you are, of course," Holderness admitted, "but here at
+Henry's--why, the place is like a club. Where are the enemies' ears to
+come from, I should like to know?"
+
+"Where we least expect to find them, as a rule," was the grave reply.
+
+"Quite right," Lutchester, who had just rejoined them, agreed. "They
+still say, you know, that our home Secret Service is just as bad as our
+foreign Secret Service is good."
+
+Holderness smiled in somewhat superior fashion.
+
+"Can't say that I have much faith in that spy talk," he declared. "No
+doubt there was any quantity of espionage before the war, but it's
+pretty well weeded out now. I say, how good civilisation is!" he went
+on, his eyes dwelling lovingly on the interior of the restaurant.
+"Tophole, isn't it, Lutchester--these smart girls, with their furs and
+violets and perfumes, the little note of music in the distance, the
+cheerful clatter of plates, the smiling faces of the waiters, and the
+undercurrent of pleasant voices. Don't laugh at me, please, Miss Van
+Teyl. I've three weeks more of it, by George--perhaps more. I don't go
+up before my Board till Thursday fortnight. Dash it, I wish Sandy would
+hurry up!"
+
+"You never told me how you got your wound," Pamela observed, as the
+conversation flagged for a moment.
+
+"Can't even remember," was the careless reply. "We were all scrapping
+away as hard as we could one afternoon, and nearly a dozen of us got
+the knock, all at the same time. It's quite all right now, though,
+except for the stiffness. It was the gas did me in.... What a fellow
+Sandy is! You people must be starving."
+
+They waited for another five minutes. Then Holderness limped towards
+the stairs with a little imprecation. Lutchester stopped him.
+
+"Don't you go, Holderness," he begged. "I'll find him and bring him
+down by the scruff of the neck."
+
+He strode up the stairs on a mission which ended in unexpected failure.
+Presently he returned, a slight frown upon his forehead.
+
+"I am awfully sorry," he announced, "but I can't find him anywhere. I
+left him washing his hands, and he said he'd be down in a moment. Are
+you quite sure that we haven't missed him?"
+
+"There hasn't been a sign of him," Molly declared promptly. "I am so
+hungry that my eyes have been glued upon the staircase all the time."
+
+Pamela, who had slipped away a few moments before, rejoined them with a
+little expression of surprise.
+
+"Isn't Captain Graham here yet?" she asked incredulously.
+
+"Not a sign of him," Holderness replied. "Queer set out, isn't it? We
+won't wait a moment longer. Take my sister and Miss Van Teyl in, will
+you?" he went on, laying his hand on Lutchester's shoulder. "Ferrani
+will look after you. I'll follow directly."
+
+The chief maitre d'hotel advanced to meet them with a gesture of
+invitation, and led them to a table arranged for five. The restaurant
+was crowded, and the coloured band, from the space against the wall on
+their left, was playing a lively one-step. Ferrani was buttonholed by
+an important client as they crossed the threshold, and they lingered
+for a moment, waiting for his guidance. Whilst they stood there, a
+curious thing happened. The leader of the orchestra seemed to draw his
+fingers recklessly across the strings of his instrument and to produce
+a discord which was almost appalling. A half-pained, half-amused
+exclamation rippled down the room. For a moment the music ceased. The
+conductor, who was responsible for the disturbance, was sitting
+motionless, his hand hanging down by his side. His features remained
+imperturbable, but the gleam of his white teeth, and a livid little
+streak under his eyes gave to his usually good-humoured face an utterly
+altered, almost a malignant expression. Ferrani stepped across and
+spoke to him for a moment angrily. The man took up his instrument,
+waved his hand, and the music re-commenced in a subdued note. Pamela
+turned to the chief maitre d'hotel, who had now re-joined them.
+
+"What an extraordinary breakdown!" she exclaimed. "Is your leader a man
+of nerves?"
+
+"Never have I heard such a thing in all my days," Ferrani assured them
+fervently. "Joseph is one of the most wonderful performers in the
+world. His control over his instrument is marvellous.... Captain
+Holderness asked particularly for this table."
+
+They seated themselves at the table reserved for them against the wall.
+Their cicerone was withdrawing with a low bow, but Pamela leaned over
+to speak to him.
+
+"Your music," she told him, "is quite wonderful. The orchestra consists
+entirely of Americans, I suppose?"
+
+"Entirely, madam," Ferrani assented. "They are real Southern darkies,
+from Joseph, the leader, down to little Peter, who blows the
+motor-horn."
+
+Pamela's interest in the matter remained unabated.
+
+"I tell you it makes one feel almost homesick to hear them play," she
+went on, with a little sigh. "Did they come direct from the States?"
+
+Ferrani shook his head.
+
+"From Paris, madam. Before that, for a little time, they were at the
+Winter Garden in Berlin. They made quite a European tour of it before
+they arrived here."
+
+"And he is the leader--the man whom you call Joseph," Pamela observed.
+"A broad, good-humoured face--not much intelligence, I should imagine."
+
+Ferrani's protest was vigorous and gesticulatory. He evidently had
+ideas of his own concerning Joseph.
+
+"More, perhaps, than you would think, madam," he declared. "He knows
+how to make a bargain, believe me. It cost us more than I would like to
+tell you to get these fellows here."
+
+Pamela looked him in the eyes.
+
+"Be careful, Monsieur Ferrani," she advised, "that it does not cost you
+more to get rid of them."
+
+She leaned back in her place, apparently tired of the subject, and
+Ferrani, a little puzzled, made his bow and withdrew. The music was
+once more in full swing. Their luncheon was served, and Lutchester did
+his best to entertain his companions. Their eyes, however, every few
+seconds strayed towards the door. There was no sign of the missing
+guest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Molly Holderness, for whom Graham's absence possessed, perhaps, more
+significance than the others, relapsed very soon into a strained and
+anxious silence. Pamela and Lutchester, on the other hand, divided
+their attention between a very excellent luncheon and an even flow of
+personal, almost inquisitorial conversation.
+
+"You will find," Pamela warned her companion almost as they took their
+places, "that I am a very curious person. I am more interested in
+people than in events. Tell me something about your work at the War
+Office?"
+
+"I am not at the War Office," he replied.
+
+"Well, what is it that you do, then?" she asked. "Captain Holderness
+told me that you had been out in France, fighting, but that you had
+some sort of official position at home now."
+
+"I am at the Ministry of Munitions," he explained.
+
+"Well, tell me about that, then?" she suggested. "Is it as exciting as
+fighting?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It has advantages," he admitted, "but I should scarcely say that
+excitement figured amongst them."
+
+She looked at him thoughtfully. Lutchester was a little over
+thirty-five years of age, tall and of sinewy build. His colouring was
+neutral, his complexion inclined to be pale, his mouth straight and
+firm, his grey eyes rather deep-set. Without possessing any of the
+stereotyped qualifications, he was sufficiently good-looking.
+
+"I wonder you didn't prefer soldiering," she observed.
+
+He smiled for a moment, and Pamela felt unreasonably annoyed at the
+twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"I am not a soldier by profession," he said, "but I went out with the
+Expeditionary Force and had a year of it. They kept me here, after a
+slight wound, to take up my old work again."
+
+"Your old work," she repeated. "I didn't know there was such a thing as
+a Ministry of Munitions before the war."
+
+He deliberately changed the conversation, directing Pamela's attention
+to the crowded condition of the room.
+
+"Gay scene, isn't it?" he remarked.
+
+"Very!" she assented drily.
+
+"Do you come here to dance?" he inquired.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You must remember that I have been living in Paris for some months,"
+she told him. "You won't be annoyed if I tell you that the way you
+English people are taking the war simply maddens me. Your young
+soldiers talk about it as though it were a sort of picnic, your
+middle-aged clubmen seem to think that it was invented to give them a
+fresh interest in their newspapers, and the rest of you seem to think
+of nothing but the money you are making. And Paris.... No, I don't
+think I should care to dance here!"
+
+Lutchester nodded, but Pamela fancied somehow or other that his
+attitude was not wholly sympathetic. His tone, with its slight note of
+admonition, irritated her.
+
+"You must be careful," he said, "not to be too much misled by
+externals."
+
+Pamela opened her lips for a quick reply, but checked herself.
+
+Captain Holderness and Ferrani had entered the room and were
+approaching their table, talking earnestly. The latter especially was
+looking perplexed and anxious.
+
+"It's the queerest thing I ever knew," Holderness pronounced. "We've
+searched every hole and corner upstairs, and there isn't a sign of
+Sandy."
+
+"Have you tried the bar?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+"Both the bar and the grillroom," Ferrani assured him.
+
+"If he had been suddenly taken ill--" Molly murmured.
+
+"But there is no place in which he could have been taken ill which we
+have not searched," Ferrani reminded her.
+
+"And besides," Holderness intervened, "Sandy was in the very pink of
+health, and bubbling over with high-spirits."
+
+"One noticed that," Lutchester remarked, a little drily.
+
+"He might almost have been called garrulous," Pamela agreed.
+
+Ferrani took grave leave of them, and Holderness seated himself at the
+table.
+
+"Well, let's get on with luncheon, anyway," he advised. "It's no good
+bothering. The best thing we can do is to conclude that the impossible
+has happened--that Sandy has met with some pals and will be here
+presently."
+
+"Or possibly," Lutchester suggested, "that he has done what certainly
+seems the most reasonable thing--gone straight off to the War Office
+with his formula and forgotten all about us. Let us return the
+compliment and forget all about him."
+
+They finished their luncheon a little more cheerfully. As the
+cigarettes were handed round, Pamela's eyes looked longingly at a tray
+of Turkish coffee which was passing.
+
+"I'm a rotten host," Holderness declared, "but, to tell you the truth,
+this queer prank of Sandy's has driven everything else out of my mind.
+Here, Hassan!"
+
+The coloured man in gorgeous oriental livery turned at once with a
+smile. He approached the table, bowing to each of them in turn. Pamela
+watched him intently, and, as his eyes met hers, Hassan's hands began
+to shake.
+
+"The waiter is bringing us ordinary coffee," Holderness explained.
+"Please countermand it and bring us Turkish coffee for four."
+
+The man had lost his savoir faire. His wonderful smile had turned into
+something sickly, his bland speech of thanks into a mumble. He turned
+away almost sheepishly.
+
+"Hassan doesn't seem to like us to-day," Molly remarked.
+
+"I should have said that he was drunk," her brother observed, looking
+after him curiously.
+
+There was certainly something the matter with Hassan, for it was at
+least a quarter of an hour before he reappeared and served his
+specially prepared concoction with the usual ceremony but with more
+restraint. Molly and the two men, after Hassan had sprinkled the
+contents of his mysterious little flask into their coffee, gave him
+their hands for the customary salute. When he came to Pamela he
+hesitated. She shook her head and he fell back, bowing respectfully,
+his hand tracing cabalistic signs across his heart. For a moment before
+he departed, he raised his eyes and glanced at her. It was like the
+mute appeal of some hurt or frightened animal.
+
+"You don't approve of Hassan's little ceremony?" Lutchester asked her.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"In America," she observed, "I think we look upon coloured people of
+any sort a little differently. Well, we've certainly given your friend
+a chance," she went on, glancing at the little jewelled watch upon her
+wrist, "We've outstayed almost every one here."
+
+Their host paid the bill, and they strolled reluctantly towards the
+door, Holderness and Pamela a few steps behind.
+
+"Now what are your sister and Mr. Lutchester studying again?" the
+latter inquired, as they reached the lobby.
+
+Molly had paused once more before the notice on the wall, which seemed
+somehow to have fascinated her. She read it out, lingering on every
+word:
+
+MEFIEZ-VOUS!
+TAISEZ-VOUS!
+LES OREILLES ENNEMIES VOUS
+ECOUTENT!
+
+Holderness listened with a frown. Then he turned suddenly to
+Lutchester, who was standing by his side.
+
+"It would be too ridiculous, wouldn't it--you couldn't in any way
+connect the idea behind that notice with Sandy's disappearance?"
+
+"I was wondering about that myself," Lutchester confessed. "To tell you
+the truth, I have been wondering all luncheon-time. If ever a man broke
+the letter and the spirit of that simple warning I should say your
+excitable young friend, Captain Graham, did."
+
+"But here at Henry's," Holderness protested, "with friends on every
+side! Isn't it a little too ridiculous! We'll wait until the last
+person is out of the place, anyway," he added.
+
+The crowd soon began to thin. Ferrani, seeing them still waiting,
+approached with a little bow.
+
+"Your friend," he asked, "he has not arrived, eh?"
+
+"No sign of him," Holderness replied gloomily.
+
+"What about his hat and coat?" Ferrani inquired, with a sudden
+inspiration.
+
+"Great idea," Holderness assented, turning towards the cloakroom
+attendant. "Don't you remember my friend, James?" he went on. "He
+arrived about half-past one, and threw his coat and hat over to you."
+
+The attendant nodded and glanced towards an empty peg.
+
+"I remember him quite well, sir," he acknowledged. "Number sixty-seven
+was his number."
+
+"Where are his things, then?"
+
+"Gone, sir," the man replied.
+
+"Do you remember his asking for them?"
+
+The attendant shook his head.
+
+"Can't say that I do, sir," he acknowledged, "but they've gone right
+enough."
+
+A party of outgoing guests claimed the man's attention. Holderness
+turned away.
+
+"This thing is getting on my nerves," he declared. "Does it seem likely
+that Sandy should chuck his luncheon without a word of explanation,
+come out and get his coat and hat and walk off? And, besides, where was
+he all the time we were looking for him?"
+
+It was unanswerable, inexplicable. They all looked at one another
+almost helplessly. Pamela held out her hand.
+
+"Well," she announced, "I am sorry, but I'm afraid that I must go. I
+have a great many things to attend to this afternoon."
+
+"You are going away soon?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+She hesitated, and at that moment Mr. Fischer, who had been saying
+farewell to his guests, turned towards her.
+
+"You are not thinking of the trip home yet, Miss Van Teyl?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," she answered a little evasively. "I'm out of humour
+with London just now."
+
+"Perhaps we shall be fellow-passengers on Thursday?" he ventured. "I am
+going over on the _New York_."
+
+"I never make plans," she told him.
+
+"In any case," Mr. Fischer continued, "I shall anticipate our early
+meeting in New York. I heard from your brother only yesterday."
+
+She looked at him with a slight frown.
+
+"From James?"
+
+Mr. Fischer nodded.
+
+"Why, I didn't know," she observed, "that you and he were acquainted."
+
+"I have had large transactions with his firm, and naturally I have seen
+a good deal of Mr. Van Teyl," the other explained. "He looks after the
+interests of us Western clients."
+
+Pamela turned a little abruptly away, and Lutchester walked with her to
+the door.
+
+"You will let me see that they bring your car round?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Thank you, no," she replied, holding out her hand. "I have not yet
+said good-by to Captain Holderness and his sister. Good-by, Mr.
+Lutchester!"
+
+Her farewell was purposely chilly. It seemed as though the slight
+sparring in which they had indulged throughout luncheon-time, had found
+its culmination in an antipathy which she had no desire to conceal.
+Lutchester, however, only smiled.
+
+"Nowadays," he observed, "that is a word which it is never necessary to
+use."
+
+She withdrew her hand from his somewhat too tenacious clasp. Something
+in his manner puzzled as well as irritated her.
+
+"Do you mean that you, too, are thinking of taking a holiday from your
+strenuous labours?" she asked. "Perhaps America is the safest country
+in the world just now for an Englishman who--"
+
+She stopped short, realising the lengths towards which her causeless
+pique was carrying her.
+
+"Prefers departmental work to fighting, were you going to add?" he said
+quietly. "Well, perhaps you are right. At any rate, I will content
+myself by saying au revoir."
+
+He passed through the turnstile door and disappeared. Pamela made her
+adieux to Holderness and his sister, and then, recognising some
+acquaintances, turned back into the restaurant to speak to them.
+Fischer, who had just received his hat and cane from the cloakroom
+attendant, stood watching her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Pamela, after a brief conversation with her friends, once more left the
+restaurant. In the lobby she called Ferrani to her.
+
+"Has Mr. Fischer gone, Ferrani?" she asked.
+
+"Not two minutes ago," the man replied. "You wish to speak to him? I
+can stop him even now."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"On the contrary," she said drily, "Mr. Fischer represents a type of my
+countrymen of whom I am not very fond. He is a great patron of yours,
+is he not?"
+
+"He is a large shareholder in the company," Ferrani confessed.
+
+"Then your restaurant will prosper," she told him. "Mr. Fischer has the
+name of being very fortunate.... That was a wonderful luncheon you gave
+us to-day."
+
+"Madame is very kind."
+
+"Will you do me a favour?"
+
+Ferrani's gesture was all-expressive. Words were entirely superfluous.
+
+"I want two addresses, please. First, the address of Joseph, your head
+musician, and, secondly, the address of Hassan, your coffee-maker."
+
+Ferrani effectually concealed any surprise he might have felt. He tore
+a page from his pocket-book.
+
+"Both I know," he declared. "Hassan lodges at a shop eighty yards away.
+The name is Haines, and there are newspaper placards outside the door."
+
+"That is quite enough," Pamela murmured.
+
+"As for Monsieur Joseph," Ferrani continued, "that is a different
+matter. He has, I understand, a small flat in Tower Mansions, Tower
+Street, leading off the Edgware Road. The number is 18C. So!"
+
+He wrote it down and passed it to her. Pamela thanked him and stood up.
+
+"Now that I have done as you asked me," Ferrani concluded, "let me add
+a word. Both these men are already off duty and have left the
+restaurant. If you wish to communicate with either of them, I advise
+you to do so by letter."
+
+"You are a very courteous gentleman, Mr. Ferrani," Pamela declared,
+dropping him a little mock curtsey, "and good morning!"
+
+She made her way into the street outside, shook her head to the
+commissionaire's upraised whistle, and strolled along until she came to
+a cross street down which several motor-cars were waiting. She
+approached one--a very handsome limousine--and checked the driver who
+would have sprung from his seat.
+
+"George," she said, "I am going to pay a call at a disreputable-looking
+news-shop, just where I am pointing. You can't bring the car there, as
+the street is too narrow. You might follow me on foot and be about."
+
+The young man touched his hat and obeyed. A few yards down the street
+Pamela found her destination, and entered a gloomy little shop. A
+slatternly woman looked at her curiously from behind the counter.
+
+"I am told that Hassan lodges here, the coffee-maker from Henry's,"
+Pamela began.
+
+The woman looked at her in a peculiar fashion.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I wish to see him."
+
+"You can't, then," was the curt answer. "He's at his prayers."
+
+"At what?" Pamela exclaimed.
+
+"At his prayers," the woman repeated brusquely. "There," she added,
+throwing open the door which led into the premises behind, "can't you
+hear him, poor soul? He's been pinching some more charms from ladies'
+bracelets, or something of the sort, I reckon. He's always in trouble.
+He goes on like this for an hour or so and then he forgives himself."
+
+Pamela stood by the open door and listened--listened to a strange,
+wailing chant, which rose and fell with almost weird monotony.
+
+"Very interesting," she observed. "I have heard that sort of thing
+before. Now will you kindly tell Hassan that I wish to speak to him, or
+shall I go and find him for myself?"
+
+"Well, you've got some brass!" the woman declared, with a sneer.
+
+"And some gold," Pamela assented, passing a pound note over to the
+woman.
+
+"Do you want to see him alone?" the latter asked, almost snatching at
+the note, but still regarding Pamela with distrustful curiosity.
+
+"Of course," was the calm reply.
+
+The woman opened her lips and closed them again, sniffed, and led the
+way down a short passage, at the end of which was a door.
+
+"There you are," she muttered, throwing it open. "You've arst for it,
+mind. 'Tain't my business."
+
+She slouched her way back again into the shop. At first Pamela could
+scarcely see anything except a dark figure on his knees before a closed
+and shrouded window. Then she saw Hassan rise to his feet, saw the
+glitter of his eyes.
+
+"Pull up the blind, Hassan," she directed.
+
+He came a step nearer to her. The gloom in the apartment was
+extraordinary. Only his shape and his eyes were visible.
+
+"Do as I tell you," she ordered. "Pull up the blind. It will be
+better."
+
+He hesitated. Then he obeyed. Even then the interior of the room seemed
+shadowy and obscure. Pamela could only see, in contrast with the rest
+of the house, that it was wonderfully and spotlessly clean. In one
+corner, barely concealed by a low screen, his bed stood upon the floor.
+Hassan muttered something in an Oriental tongue. Pamela interrupted
+him. She spoke in the soothing tone one uses towards a child.
+
+"That's all right, Hassan," she said. "Sorry to have interrupted you at
+your prayers, but it had to be done. You know me?"
+
+"Yes, mistress," he answered unwillingly. "I your dragoman one year in
+Cairo. What you want here, mistress?"
+
+"You know that I know," she went on, "that you are a Turk and a
+Mohammedan, and not an Egyptian at all."
+
+"Yes, mistress, you know that," he muttered.
+
+"And you also know," she continued, "that if I give you away to the
+authorities you will be sent at once to a very uncomfortable internment
+camp, where you won't even have an opportunity to wash more than once a
+day, where you will have to herd with all sorts of people, who will
+make fun of your colour and your religion--"
+
+"Don't, mistress!" he shouted suddenly. "You will not tell. I think you
+will not tell!"
+
+He was sidling a little towards her. Again one of those curious changes
+seemed to have transformed him from a dumb, passive creature into a
+savage. There was menace in his eyes. She waved him back without
+moving.
+
+"I have come to make a bargain with you, Hassan," she said, "just a few
+words, that is all. Not quite so near, please."
+
+He paused. There was a moment's silence. His face was within a foot of
+hers, lowering, black, bestial. Her eyes met his without a tremor. Her
+full, sweet lips only curved into a faintly contemptuous line.
+
+"You cannot frighten me, Hassan," she declared. "No man has ever done
+that. And outside I have a chauffeur with muscles of iron, who waits
+for me. Be reasonable. Listen. There are secrets connected with your
+restaurant."
+
+"I know nothing," he began at once; "nothing, mistress--nothing!"
+
+"Quite naturally," she continued. "I only need one piece of
+information. A man disappeared there this morning. I just have to find
+him. That's all there is about it. At half-past one he was inveigled
+into the musicians' room and by some means or other rendered
+unconscious. At three o'clock he had been removed. I want to know what
+became of him. You help me and the whole world can believe you to be an
+Egyptian for the rest of their lives. If you can't help me it is rather
+unfortunate for you, because I shall tell the police at once who and
+what you are. Don't waste time, Hassan."
+
+He stood thinking, rubbing his hands and bowing before her, yet, as she
+knew very well, with murder in his heart. Once she saw his long fingers
+raised a little.
+
+"Quite useless, Hassan," she warned him. "They hang you in England, you
+know, for any little trifle such as you are thinking of. Be sensible,
+and I may even leave a few pound notes behind me."
+
+"Mistress should ask Joseph," he muttered. "I know nothing."
+
+"Oh, mistress is going to ask Joseph all right," she assured him, "but
+I want a little information from you, too. You've got to earn your
+freedom, you know, Hassan. Come, what do they do with the people who
+disappear from the restaurant?"
+
+"Not understand," was the almost piteous reply.
+
+Pamela sighed. She had again the air of one being patient with a child.
+
+"See here, Hassan," she went on, "a few days ago I went over that
+restaurant from top to bottom with the manager. There is the musicians'
+room, isn't there, just over the entrance hall? I suppose those little
+glass places in the floor are movable, and then one can hear every word
+that is spoken below. I am right so far, am I not?"
+
+Hassan answered nothing. His breathing, however, had become a little
+deeper.
+
+"An unsuspecting person, passing from the toilet rooms upstairs, could
+easily be induced to enter. I think that there must be another exit
+from that room. Yes?"
+
+"Yes!" Hassan faltered.
+
+"To where?"
+
+"The wine-cellars."
+
+"And from there?"
+
+Hassan was suddenly voluble. Truth unlocked his tongue.
+
+"Not know, mistress--not know another thing. No one enters wine-cellar
+but three men. One of those not know. If I guess--I, Hassan--I look at
+little chapel left standing in waste place. Perhaps I wonder sometimes,
+but I not know."
+
+Pamela drew three notes from her gold purse, smoothed them out and
+handed them over.
+
+"Three pounds, Hassan, silence, and good day! You'll live longer if you
+open your windows now and then, and get a little fresh air, instead of
+praying yourself hoarse."
+
+Again the black figure swayed perilously towards her. She affected not
+to notice, not to notice the hand which seemed for a moment as though
+it would snatch the door handle from her grasp. She passed out
+pleasantly and without haste. The last sound she heard was a groan.
+
+"Done your bit o' business, eh?" the landlady asked curiously.
+
+Pamela nodded assent.
+
+"Rather an odd sort of lodger for you, isn't he?"
+
+"Not so odd as his visitors," the woman retorted, with an evil sneer.
+
+Pamela passed into the narrow street and drew a long sigh of relief.
+Then she entered her car and gave the chauffeur an address from the
+slip of paper which she carried in her hand. When they stopped outside
+the little block of flats he prepared to follow her.
+
+"Tough neighbourhood this, madam," he said.
+
+"Maybe, George," she replied, waving him back, "but you've got to stay
+down here. If the man I am going to see thought I was frightened of him
+I wouldn't have a chance. If I am not down in half an hour you can try
+number 18C."
+
+The chauffeur resumed his place on the driving-seat of the car. Pamela,
+heartily disliking her surroundings, was escorted by a shabby porter to
+a shabbier lift.
+
+"You'll find Mr. Joseph in," the lift boy assured her with a grin.
+
+Pamela found the number at the end of an unswept stone passage. At her
+third summons the door was cautiously opened by a large,
+repulsive-looking woman, with a mass of peroxidised hair. She stared at
+her visitor first in amazement, then in rapidly gathering resentment.
+
+"Mr. Joseph is at home," she admitted truculently, in response to
+Pamela's inquiry. "What might you be wanting with him?"
+
+"If you will be so good as to let me in I will explain to Mr. Joseph,"
+Pamela replied.
+
+The woman seemed on the point of slamming the door. Suddenly there was
+a voice from behind her shoulder. Joseph appeared--not the smiling,
+joyous Joseph of Henry's but a sullen-looking negro, dressed in shirt
+and trousers only, with a heavy under-lip and frowning forehead.
+
+"Let the lady pass and get into the kitchen, Nora," he ordered, "Come
+this way, mam."
+
+Pamela followed her guide into a parlour, redolent of stale cigar
+smoke, with oilcloth on the floor and varnished walls, an abode even
+more horrible than Hassan's lair. Joseph closed the door carefully
+behind him, and made no apology for his dishabille. He simply faced
+Pamela.
+
+"Say, what is it you want with me?" he demanded truculently.
+
+"A trifle," she answered. "The key of the chapel in the little plot of
+waste ground next Henry's."
+
+She meant him to be staggered, and he was. He reeled back for a moment.
+
+"What the hell are you talking about?" he gasped.
+
+"Facts," Pamela replied. "Do you want to save yourself, Joseph? You can
+do it if you choose."
+
+He folded his arms and stood in front of the closed door. Without a
+collar, his neck bulged unpleasantly behind. There was nothing whatever
+left of the suave and genial chef d'orchestra.
+
+"Save myself from what, eh? Just let me get wise about it."
+
+Pamela's eyebrows were daintily elevated.
+
+"Dear me!" she murmured. "I thought you were more intelligent. Listen.
+You know where we met last? Let me remind you. You were playing in the
+Winter Garden at Berlin, and the gentleman whom I was with, an attache
+at the American Embassy, spoke to you. He told me a good deal about
+your past life, Joseph, and your present one. You are in the pay of the
+Secret Service of Germany. Am I to go to Scotland Yard and tell them
+so?"
+
+He looked at her wickedly.
+
+"You'd have to get out of here first."
+
+"Don't be silly," she advised him contemptuously. "Remember you're
+talking to an American woman and don't waste your breath. You can be in
+the Secret Service of any country you like, without interference from
+me. On the other hand, there's just one thing I want from you."
+
+"What is it? I haven't got any key."
+
+"I want to discover exactly what has become of Captain Graham," she
+declared.
+
+"What, the guy that missed his lunch to-day?" he growled.
+
+"I see you know all about it," she continued equably.
+
+"So he's your spark, is he?" Joseph observed slowly, his eyes blinking
+as he leaned a little forward.
+
+"On the contrary," Pamela replied, "I have never met him. However,
+that's beside the point. Do I have the key of that chapel?"
+
+"You do not."
+
+"Have you got it?"
+
+"Right here," Joseph assented, dangling it before her eyes.
+
+"I think it's a fair bargain I'm offering you," she reminded him. "You
+lose the key and keep your place. You only have to keep your mouth shut
+and nothing happens."
+
+"Nothing doing," the negro declared shortly. "Keys as important as this
+ain't lost. If I part with it, I get the chuck, and I probably get into
+the same mess as the others. If I keep it--"
+
+"If you keep it," Pamela interrupted, "you will probably stand with
+your back to the light in the Tower within the next few days. They've
+left off being lenient with spies over here."
+
+He looked at her, and there were things in his eyes which few women in
+the world could have seen without terror. Pamela's lips only came a
+little closer together. She pressed the inside of the ring upon her
+third finger, and a ray of green fire seemed to shoot forward.
+
+"I guess I'm up against it," he growled, taking a step forward. "I'll
+have something of what's coming to me, if I swing for it."
+
+His arm was suddenly around her, his face hideously close. He gave a
+little snarl as he felt the pinprick through his shirt sleeve. Then he
+went spinning round and round with his hand to his head.
+
+"What in God's name!" he spluttered. "What in hell--!"
+
+He reeled against the horsehair easy-chair and slipped on to the floor.
+Pamela calmly closed her ring, stooped over him, withdrew the key from
+his pocket, crossed the room and the dingy little hall with swift
+footsteps, and, without waiting for the lift, fled down the stone
+steps. Before she reached the bottom, she heard the shrill ringing of
+the lift bell, the angry shouting of the woman. Pamela, however,
+strolled quietly out and took her place in the car.
+
+"Back to the hotel, George," she directed the chauffeur. "Don't stop if
+they call to you from the flats."
+
+The young man sprang up to his seat and the car glided off. Pamela
+leaned forward and looked at herself in the mirror. There was a shade
+more colour in her face, perhaps, than usual, but her low waves of
+chestnut hair were unruffled. She used her powder puff with attentive
+skill and leaned back.
+
+"That's the disagreeable part of it over, anyway," she sighed to
+herself contentedly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The last of the supper-guests had left Henry's Restaurant, the
+commissionaire's whistle was silent. The light laughter and frivolous
+adieux of the departing guests seemed to have melted away into a world
+somewhere beyond the pale of the unseasonable fog. The little strip of
+waste ground adjoining was wrapped in gloom and silence. The exterior
+of the bare and deserted chapel, long since unconsecrate, was dull and
+lifeless. Inside, however, began the march of strange things. First of
+all, the pinprick of light of a tiny electric torch seemed as though it
+had risen from the floor, and Hassan, pushing back a trap-door, stepped
+into the bare, dusty conventicle. He listened for a moment, then made a
+tour of the windows, touched a spring in the wall, and drew down long,
+thick blinds. Afterwards he passed between the row of dilapidated
+benches and paused at the entrance door. He stooped down, examined the
+keyless lock, shook it gently, gazed upwards and downwards as though in
+vain search of bolts that were never there. His white teeth gleamed for
+a moment in the darkness. He turned away with a little shiver.
+
+"Not my fault," he muttered to himself. "Not my fault."
+
+He listened for a moment intently, as though for footsteps outside. The
+disturbance, however, came from the other end of the building. There
+was a sharp knocking from the trap-door by which he had ascended. He
+touched an electric knob. The place was dimly yet sufficiently
+illuminated. He hastened towards the further end of the place and
+pulled up the trap-door. A melancholy-looking little procession slowly
+emerged. First of all came Joseph, stepping backwards, supporting the
+head and shoulders of Graham, still bound and gagged. After him came a
+dark, swarthy-faced wine waiter, who supported Graham's feet. Behind
+followed Fischer, carrying his silk hat and cane in his hand. He paused
+for a moment as he stepped on the floor of the chapel, and brushed the
+dust from his trousers.
+
+"You can take out the gag now," he ordered the two men. "There isn't
+much shout in him."
+
+They laid him upon a couch, and Joseph obeyed the order. Graham's head
+swung helplessly on one side. His eyes opened, however, and he
+struggled for consciousness. His lips twitched for a moment. In these
+long hours he had almost forgotten the habit of speech. The words, when
+they came, sounded strange to him.
+
+"What--where am I? What do you want with me?"
+
+Fischer laid his hat and stick upon a table, on which also stood a
+telephone instrument.
+
+"The formula, my young friend," he replied, "for that wonderful
+explosive of which you spoke in the lobby."
+
+A sudden accession of nervous strength brought something almost like
+passion into the young man's reply, although to himself there still
+seemed some unreality in the words which might have come from the walls
+or the roof--surely not from his lips.
+
+"I'll see you damned first!"
+
+Fischer smiled. The man was good-looking, in his way, but this was a
+pale and ugly smile.
+
+"My request was merely a matter of courtesy," he remarked. "The
+difficulty of searching you is not formidable. It would have been
+undertaken long ago but for the fact that the restaurant has been
+crowded and gags sometimes slip. Besides, there was no hurry. Observe!"
+
+He leaned over Graham, who for the first time struggled furiously but
+ineffectually with his bonds. His fingers all the time were straining
+towards the inside pocket of his coat. Fischer nodded understandingly.
+
+"Allow me to anticipate you," he said.
+
+With a quick thrust he drew a little handful of papers from the pocket
+of his captive. One by one he glanced them through and flung them on to
+the floor. As he came towards the end of his search, however, his
+expression of confident complacency vanished. His lips shrivelled up a
+little, his eyes narrowed. The last folded sheet of paper--a little
+perfumed note from Peggy, thanking Sandy for his beautiful roses--he
+crumpled fiercely into a little ball. He opened his lips to speak, then
+he paused. A new light broke in upon him. The fury had passed from
+Sandy Graham's face. In its stead there was an expression of blank
+astonishment.
+
+"Where is the formula?" Fischer asked fiercely.
+
+There was no reply. Sandy Graham was still staring at the little pile
+of papers upon the floor. Fischer made a brief examination of the other
+pockets. Then he stepped back. His voice shook, his face was dark and
+malevolent.
+
+"Joseph, Hassan, Jules--listen to me!" he ordered. "Did any one else
+enter the musicians' room whilst he was lying in the alcove?"
+
+"Impossible!" Jules declared.
+
+"The door was locked," Hassan murmured.
+
+"Stop!" Joseph exclaimed.
+
+Fischer wheeled round upon him.
+
+"Well?" he exclaimed. "Get on, then. Who?"
+
+Joseph moistened his lips. He was still feeling sore and dizzy, but he
+began to see his way.
+
+"You noticed, perhaps," he said, "the American girl--the beautiful
+young lady with this guy's friends? She was waiting with the others for
+Captain Graham to come down. I saw her go up the stairs. I saw her come
+down again, three minutes later."
+
+"Miss Van Teyl?" Fischer exclaimed, with a frown. "You're mad, Joseph!"
+
+The negro laughed grimly.
+
+"Am I!" he retorted. "I tell you this, Master Fischer. She was in
+Berlin where I was, and she was at the Embassy every day. She was asked
+to leave there. They put her over the frontier into Holland. I knew her
+when she came into the restaurant. She's no society young lady, she
+ain't! Bet you she was on to the goods."
+
+Fischer hesitated for a moment. The thoughts were chasing one another
+through his brain. Then he took up the receiver from the telephone
+instrument which stood upon the table.
+
+"1560 Mayfair," he asked in a low tone.
+
+They all stood listening, grouped around Graham's writhing figure.
+
+"Hullo! Is that Claridge's Hotel?" Fischer went on. "I am speaking from
+Giro's. Put me through, if you please, to Miss Van Teyl's apartments...
+What? Repeat that, will you?... Thank you."
+
+Fischer laid down the receiver. He turned towards the others. He was
+breathing a little quickly, and his eyes glittered behind his
+gold-rimmed spectacles.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl," he announced, "has left for Tilbury. She is going out
+on the _Lapland_ this morning. My God, she's got the formula!"
+
+There was a moment's silence. Joseph was standing by with a wicked look
+on his face.
+
+"I saw her slip away," he muttered, "and I watched her come down again.
+There was just time."
+
+Fischer turned suddenly to where Graham was lying. He drew a sheet of
+writing paper from the rack upon the table, and a pencil from his
+pocket. There was an evil and concentrated significance in his tone.
+
+"That formula," he said, "can be written again. I think you had better
+write it."
+
+"I'll see you damned first!" was the weak but prompt reply.
+
+Fischer bent a little lower over the prostrate figure, "Look here," he
+went on, "we don't run risks like this for nothing. You're better dead
+than alive, so far as we are concerned, anyway. We'd planned to take
+the formula from you, and you can guess the rest. There are cellars
+underneath here into which no one ever goes who matters. Now here's a
+chance of life for you. Write down that formula--truthfully, mind--and
+we'll discuss the matter of taking your parole."
+
+"See you damned first!" Graham repeated, his voice a little more
+tremulous but still convincing.
+
+Fischer stood upright and turned to Jules.
+
+"Get a bottle of brandy and a glass," he ordered.
+
+The man pushed open the trap-door and disappeared. He came back again
+in a few moments, with a bottle in one hand and a glass in the other.
+Fischer poured out some of the cordial and drew a small table up to
+Graham's side.
+
+"There," he said, loosening the cord around his left wrist, "drink
+that, and think it over. We shall be gone for about ten minutes. If you
+change your mind before, ring that little hand-bell. If you have not
+changed your mind when we return, it will be the cellars."
+
+"Beasts!" Graham muttered.
+
+Fischer shrugged his shoulders. For a moment he had straightened
+himself. His face had softened, but it was in tune with his thoughts.
+
+"I would twist the necks of a million fools like you," he said, "for
+the sake of--"
+
+He paused, leaving his sentence uncompleted, and beckoned to the other
+men. They followed him through the trap-door and down into the cellars
+below. The place was once more silent. Graham rolled from side to side,
+drew a long breath, and tugged vainly at his bonds. The effort
+overtaxed his strength. He seemed to feel the darkness closing in upon
+him, the rushing of the sea in his ears....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+So far as Sandy Graham was concerned, his unconsciousness might have
+lasted an hour or a day. As a matter of fact, it was scarcely a minute
+after the disappearance of Fischer and his confederates when he was
+conscious of a rush of cold air in the place, and beheld the vision of
+a tiny flash of light at the lower end of the gloomy building.
+Immediately afterwards he heard the soft closing of a door and beheld a
+tall, shadowy figure slowly approaching. He lay quite still and looked
+at it, and his heart began to beat with hope. One of the lights had
+been left burning, and there was something in the bearing and attitude
+of the man who finally came to a standstill by his side, which was
+entirely reassuring.
+
+"Lutchester!" he faltered. "My God, how did you get here?"
+
+"Offices of a young lady," Lutchester observed, producing a knife from
+his pocket. "Allow me!"
+
+He cut the cords which still secured Graham's limbs. Then he looked
+around him.
+
+"How did they bring you here?" he whispered. "I suppose there is a
+passage from the restaurant?"
+
+"Up through a trapdoor there," Graham explained, pointing.
+
+Lutchester stood over it and listened intently.
+
+Then he turned around, lifted the glass of brandy from the table, smelt
+it approvingly, and tasted it.
+
+"Excellent!" he pronounced. "The 1840. Allow me!"
+
+He refilled the glass and handed it to Sandy, who gulped down the
+contents. The effect was almost instantaneous. In less than a minute he
+had staggered to his feet.
+
+"Feel strong enough to walk about fifty yards?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+"I'd walk to hell to get out of this place!" was the prompt reply.
+
+Lutchester took his arm, and they passed down the dusty aisle between
+the worm-eaten and decaying benches and through the outside door, which
+Lutchester closed and locked behind them. The rush of cold air was like
+new life to Graham.
+
+"I can walk all right now," he muttered. "My God, we'll give these
+fellows hell for this!"
+
+They made their very difficult way across a plot of ground from which a
+row of dilapidated cottages had been razed to the ground. The fog still
+hung around them and seemed to bring with it a curious silence,
+although the dying traffic from one of the main thoroughfares reached
+them in muffled notes. Lutchester climbed to the top of a pile of
+rubbish and then, turning around, held out his hand.
+
+"Up here," he directed.
+
+Graham struggled up until he stood by his companion's side. The latter
+stood quite still, listening for a moment. Then he climbed a little
+higher and swung around, holding out his hand once more.
+
+"I'm on top of the wall," he said. "Come
+on."
+
+Graham's knees were shaking, but with Lutchester's help he staggered up
+and reached his side. On the pavement below a man in chauffeur's livery
+was standing, holding out his hands, and by the side of the curbstone a
+closed car was waiting. Somehow or other the two reached the pavement.
+Lutchester almost pushed his companion into the limousine and stepped
+in after him. The chauffeur sprang to his seat and the car glided off.
+Graham just realised that there was a woman by his side whose face was
+vaguely familiar. Then the waves broke in upon his ears once more.
+
+"I was right, then, it seems," Pamela observed approvingly. "You were
+just the man for this little affair."
+
+Lutchester sighed.
+
+"Unfortunately," he confessed, "a messenger boy would have been as
+effective. I stumbled over to the chapel--rubber shoes, you observe,"
+he remarked, pointing downwards--"and soon discovered that blinds had
+been let down all round and that there were people inside. There was
+just a faint chink in one, and I caught a glimpse of several men, your
+friend Oscar amongst them. Having," he went on, "an immense regard for
+my personal safety, I was hesitating what means to adopt when the
+lights were lowered, and it seemed to me that the men were
+disappearing."
+
+"Do go on," Pamela murmured. "This is most exciting."
+
+"In a sense it was disappointing," Lutchester complained. "I had
+pictured for myself a dramatic entrance ... a quiet turning of the key,
+a soft approach--owing to my shoes," he reminded her--"a cough,
+perhaps, or a breath ... discovery, me with a revolver in my hand
+pointed to the arch-villain--'If you stir you're a dead man!' ...
+Natural collapse of the villain. With my left hand I slash the bonds
+which hold Graham, with my right I cover the miscreants. One of them,
+perhaps, might creep behind me, and I hesitate. If I move my revolver
+the other two will get the drop on me--I think that is the correct
+expression? A wonderful moment, that, Miss Van Teyl!"
+
+"But it didn't happen," she protested.
+
+"Ah! I forgot that," he acknowledged. "Still, I was prepared, I had the
+revolver all right. But as you say, it didn't happen. I made my way to
+the chapel door, let myself in, found our friend lying in a
+half-comatose state upon one of the blue plush Henry sofas, in the
+shadow of a horrible deal pulpit. I gathered that he had been left
+there to reflect upon his sins. There was a bottle of remarkably fine
+brandy within reach, which I tested, and with which I dosed our friend
+here. I then cut away his bonds, arm in arm we walked down the aisle, I
+locked up the place, threw the key away, kicked my shins half-a-dozen
+times crossing that disgusting little plot of land, climbed boldly to
+the top of the wall, and behold!"
+
+Pamela smiled upon him in congratulatory fashion.
+
+"On the whole," she said, "I am quite glad that I telephoned to you."
+
+"You showed a sound discretion," he admitted.
+
+"If he had not been lame," she confessed, "I should have sent to
+Captain Holderness."
+
+"That would have been a great mistake," Lutchester assured her.
+"Holderness is a good fellow but devoid of imagination. He is great on
+constituted authority. He would have probably marched up with a squad
+of heavy-footed policemen--and found nothing."
+
+"Yet I must confess," Pamela persisted, with a frankness unaccountable
+even to herself, "that if I could have thought of any one else I should
+never have telephoned to you."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because I should not have classified you as being of the adventurous
+type," she declared.
+
+Lutchester looked injured.
+
+"After all," he protested, "that is not my fault. That is due to your
+singular lack of perception. However, I am able to return the
+compliment. I, for my part, should have thought that you were more
+interested in the fashions than in paying exceedingly rash visits to
+degenerate orientals and negroes."
+
+"Perhaps some day," she remarked, "we may understand one another
+better."
+
+He met her gaze with a certain seriousness.
+
+"I hope that we may," he said.
+
+For some reason they were both silent for a moment. Her tone had
+changed a little when she spoke again.
+
+"You are sure," she asked, "that you do not mind my leaving the rest of
+this affair in your hands? There are reasons, which I cannot tell you
+of just now, which make me anxious not to appear in it at all."
+
+"I accept the charge as a privilege," he assented. "We are within a few
+yards of my rooms now. I promise you that I will look after Captain
+Graham and advise him as to the proper course for him to pursue."
+
+The car came to a standstill.
+
+"This then," she said, holding out her hand, "will be good-by for the
+present."
+
+He held her fingers for a moment without reply. Quite suddenly she
+decided that she liked him. Then he lifted Graham, who was half asleep,
+half unconscious, to his feet, and assisted him from the car.
+
+"Where shall I tell the man to go to?" he inquired.
+
+"He knows," she answered with sudden taciturnity.
+
+"Wherever it may be, then," he replied, "bon voyage!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+It was about half-an-hour later when Sandy Graham opened his eyes and
+began to feel the life once more warm in his veins. He was seated in
+the most comfortable easy-chair of John Lutchester's bachelor
+sitting-room. By his side was a coffee equipage and a decanter of
+brandy. His head still throbbed, and his bones ached, but his mind was
+beginning to grow clearer. Lutchester, who had been seated at the
+writing table, swung round in his chair at the sound of his guest's
+movement.
+
+"Feeling better, eh?" he asked.
+
+"I am all right now," was the somewhat shaky reply. "Got a head like a
+turnip and a tongue like a lime-kiln, but I'm beginning--to feel
+myself."
+
+"How's your memory?"
+
+"Hazy. Let me see.... My God, I've been robbed, haven't I!"
+
+"So I imagine," Lutchester replied. "You rather asked for it, didn't
+you?"
+
+Graham moved uneasily in his place. He had suddenly the feeling of
+being back at school--and in the presence of the headmaster.
+
+"I suppose I did in a way," he admitted, "but at Henry's--why, I've
+always looked upon the place as a club more than anything else."
+
+"I am afraid that I can't agree with you there," Lutchester observed.
+"I should consider Henry's a remarkably cosmopolitan restaurant, where
+a man in your position should exercise more than even ordinary
+restraint."
+
+"I suppose I was wrong," Graham muttered, "but I had been working for
+about ten hours on end, and then rushed up to London in the car to try
+and keep my appointment with Holderness."
+
+"Stop anywhere on the way?"
+
+"We had a few drinks," Graham confessed. "I was so done up. Perhaps I
+had more than I meant to. However, it's no use bothering about that
+now. I've been robbed, and that's all there is about it. Could we get
+on to Scotland Yard from here?"
+
+"We could, but I don't think we will," Lutchester replied.
+
+Graham was puzzled.
+
+"Why not?" he demanded. "That formula was the most wonderful thing that
+has ever been put together, and the whole thing's so simple. I've been
+afraid every second that some one else might stumble upon it."
+
+"It is without doubt a great loss," Lutchester admitted. "All the same,
+I don't fancy that it's a Scotland Yard business exactly. Have you any
+idea who robbed you?"
+
+Graham paused to think. His eyes were still troubled and uncertain.
+
+"It's coming back to me," he muttered. "I remember that beastly barn of
+a chapel. There were Jules, and that musician fellow, and the big
+American. He emptied my pockets ... Why, of course, I remember how
+angry he was ... My pocketbook was gone! They left me alone to write
+out the formula again, and then you came.... How on earth did you
+tumble on to my being there, Lutchester?"
+
+"It was Miss Pamela Van Teyl whom you must thank," Lutchester told him,
+"not me. It seems she knew more about Henry's than any of us. She'd
+come up against some of the crew in Berlin, and she guessed they were
+holding you for that formula. She got the key out of one of those men
+and then telephoned to me for my help."
+
+"And I never even thanked her," Graham murmured weakly.
+
+There was a moment's silence. The recovering man's consciousness of his
+position and of events was evidently as yet incomplete. He sat up
+suddenly in his chair, gripping the sides of it. His eyes were large
+with reminiscent trouble.
+
+"My pocketbook had gone when they searched me," he muttered.
+
+"Are you sure that you had it with you when you came into Henry's?"
+Lutchester inquired.
+
+"Absolutely certain."
+
+"Do you think you can remember now what happened when you went
+upstairs?"
+
+"I reached the lavatory all right--you were with me then, weren't you?"
+Graham said reflectively. "I hung up my coat while I washed, but there
+was no one else in the room. Then you went downstairs and I brushed my
+hair and just stopped to light a cigarette. You know that on the
+right-hand side of the landing there is a room where the musicians
+change. Joseph, that black devil, was standing in the doorway. He
+grinned as I came into sight. 'Lady wants to speak to you for a moment,
+Captain Graham,' he said. Well, you know how harmless the fellow
+looks--just a good-natured, smiling nigger. I never dreamed of anything
+wrong. As a matter of fact, I thought that Peggy Vincent--that's a
+young lady I often go to Henry's with--wanted to have a word with me
+before I joined our party. I stepped inside the room, and that's just
+about all I can remember. It must have been jolly quick. His arm shot
+round my neck, the door was closed, and that other brute--Hassan, I
+think it was--held something over my face."
+
+"But that room was searched," Lutchester reminded him.
+
+"Well I came to just a little," Graham explained, "I found that I was
+in a sort of cupboard place, behind the lockers these fellows have for
+their clothes. It opens with a spring lock, and you'd never notice it,
+searching the room."
+
+"Who was the first person you saw when you recovered consciousness?"
+
+Graham's forehead was wrinkled in the effort to remember.
+
+"I can't quite get hold of it," he confessed, "but I have a sort of
+fancy I can't altogether get rid of that there was a woman about."
+
+Lutchester looked at the end of the cigarette he had just lit.
+
+"A woman?" he repeated. "That's queer."
+
+"I can't remember anything definitely until I woke up in that chapel,"
+Graham continued, "but when they searched me and found that the
+pocketbook had gone, Fischer, the big American, muttered some woman's
+name. I was queer just at the moment, but it sounded very much to me
+like Miss Van Teyl's. He rang her up on the telephone."
+
+"Did they suspect Miss Van Teyl, then, of having taken your
+pocketbook?"
+
+Graham shook his head.
+
+"I lost the drift of things just then," he admitted. "She couldn't have
+done, in any case. Forgive me, but aren't we wasting time, Mr.
+Lutchester? We must do something. Couldn't you ring up Scotland Yard
+now?"
+
+"I certainly could," Lutchester assented, "but, as I told you just now,
+I don't think that I will."
+
+Graham stared at him.
+
+"But why not?"
+
+"For certain very definite reasons with which you needn't trouble
+yourself just now," Lutchester pronounced. "The formula has gone,
+without a doubt, but it certainly isn't in the hands of any of the
+people at Henry's."
+
+"But there's that American fellow--Fischer!" Graham exclaimed. "He was
+the ringleader!"
+
+"Just so," Lutchester murmured thoughtfully. "However, he hasn't got
+the formula."
+
+"But he planned the attack upon me," Graham protested. "He is an
+enemy--a German--sheltering himself under his American naturalization.
+Surely we're going for him?"
+
+"He's a wrong 'un, of course," Lutchester admitted, "but he hasn't got
+the formula."
+
+"But we must do something!" Graham continued, his anger rising as his
+strength returned. "Why, the place is a perfect den of conspirators! I
+expect Ferrani himself is in it, and there's that other maitre d'hotel,
+Jules, and those black beasts, Joseph and Hassan, besides Fischer. My
+God, they shall pay for this!"
+
+Lutchester nodded.
+
+"I dare say they will," he admitted, "but not quite in the way you are
+thinking of."
+
+Graham half rose to his feet.
+
+"Look here," he said, "I'm sane enough now, aren't I, and in my proper
+senses? You are not going to suggest that we don't turn the police on
+to that damned place?"
+
+"I certainly am," was the brief reply.
+
+Graham was aghast.
+
+"What do you mean to do, then?"
+
+"Leave them alone for the present. Not one of them has the formula. Not
+one of them even knows where it is."
+
+"But the attack upon me?"
+
+"You asked for all you got," Lutchester told him curtly, "and perhaps a
+little more."
+
+The first tinge of colour came back to Graham's cheeks. His eyes
+flashed with anger.
+
+"Perhaps I did," he admitted, "but that doesn't alter the fact that I'm
+going to have some of my own back out of them."
+
+Lutchester crossed his legs and turned round in his chair. For the
+first time he directly faced his visitor. His tone, though not
+unkindly, was imperative.
+
+"Young fellow," he said, "you'll have to listen to me about this."
+
+A smouldering sense of revolt suddenly found words.
+
+"Listen to you? What the devil have you got to do with it?" Graham
+demanded.
+
+"I hate to remind any one of an obligation," Lutchester answered, "but
+I am under the impression that, together with Miss Van Teyl, of course,
+I rescued you from an exceedingly inconvenient situation."
+
+"I haven't had time yet to tell you how grateful I am," Graham said
+awkwardly. "You were a brick, of course, and how you and Miss Van Teyl
+tumbled on to the whole thing I can't imagine. But I don't understand
+what you're getting at now. You can't suggest that I am to leave these
+fellows alone and not give information to the police?"
+
+"The character of the place," Lutchester assured him, "is already
+perfectly well known to the heads of the police. The matter will be
+dealt with, but not in the way you suggest. And so far as regards
+Fischer, I do not wish him interfered with for the present."
+
+"You do not wish him interfered with?" Graham repeated. "Where the
+devil do you come in at all?"
+
+"You can leave me out of the matter for the present. You want the
+formula back, don't you?"
+
+"My God, yes!" Graham muttered fervently. "It's all very well to give
+one a pencil and a piece of paper and say 'Write it out,' but there are
+calculations and proportions--"
+
+"Precisely," Lutchester interrupted. "You want it back again. Why not
+let Fischer do the business? He has an idea where it's gone. The thing
+to do seems to me to follow him."
+
+"To follow Fischer?" Graham repeated vaguely.
+
+"Precisely. If he thinks the formula is in England, Fischer will stay
+in England. If he thinks that it has gone abroad he will go abroad. If
+we leave him free we can watch which he does."
+
+Graham swallowed half a wineglassful of the brandy by his side. Then he
+leaned forward.
+
+"Look here," he said, "you'll forgive me if I repeat myself and ask you
+once more--what the hell has all this got to do with you?"
+
+"Just this much," Lutchester replied, "that I insist upon your taking
+the course of action in this matter which I propose."
+
+"You mean," Graham protested, working himself gradually into a state of
+wrath, "that I am to go back to my rooms as though nothing had
+happened, see Holderness and the others to-morrow, and not have a word
+of explanation to offer? That I am to leave those blackguards at
+Henry's to try their dirty games on some one else, and let Fischer, the
+man who was fully inclined to become my murderer, go away unharmed? I
+think not, Mr. Lutchester. I am much obliged for your help, but you are
+talking piffle."
+
+"What do you propose to do, then?"
+
+"I am going round to Scotland Yard myself."
+
+Lutchester rose to his feet.
+
+"Stay where you are for a minute, please," he begged.
+
+He passed into a smaller room, and Graham could hear faintly the sound
+of the telephone. In a minute or two his host returned.
+
+"Go in there and speak, Graham," he invited. "You will find some one
+you know at the other end."
+
+Graham did as he was bidden, and Lutchester closed the door after him.
+For a few minutes the latter sat in his chair, smoking quietly, his
+eyes fixed upon the fire. Then his unwilling guest reappeared. He came
+into the room a little unsteadily and looked with new eyes at the man
+who seemed so unaccountably to have taken over the control of his
+affairs.
+
+"I don't understand all this," he muttered. "Who the devil are you,
+anyway, Lutchester?"
+
+"A very ordinary person, I can assure you," was the quiet reply.
+"However, you are satisfied, I suppose, that my advice is good?"
+
+"Yes, I am satisfied," Graham answered nervously. "You know that--that
+I'm under arrest?"
+
+Lutchester nodded.
+
+"Well, you're not asking for my sympathy, I suppose?" he observed
+drily.
+
+The young man flushed.
+
+"I know that I behaved like a fool," he admitted. "All the same, I've
+been working night and day for weeks on this problem. I haven't even
+been up to town once. I must say I think they seem inclined to be a
+little hard on me."
+
+"No one is going to be in the least hard on you," Lutchester assured
+him. "You have committed a frightful indiscretion, and all that is
+asked of you now is to keep your mouth shut. If you do that, I think a
+way will be found for you out of your troubles."
+
+"But what is to become of me?" Graham demanded.
+
+"I understand that you are to be taken to Northumberland to-morrow,"
+Lutchester informed him. "There you will be allowed every facility for
+fresh experiments. In the meantime, I have promised to give you a
+shakedown here for the night. You will find a soldier on guard outside
+your door, but you can treat him as your servant."
+
+"You are very kind," Graham faltered, a little vaguely. "If only I
+could understand--"
+
+Lutchester rose to his feet. His manner became more serious, his tone
+had in it a note of finality.
+
+"Captain Graham," he interrupted, "don't try to understand. I will tell
+you as much as this, if it helps you. Henry's Restaurant will be placed
+under the closest surveillance, but we wish nothing disturbed there at
+the moment until we have discovered the future plans of Mr. Oscar
+Fischer."
+
+"The big German-American," Graham muttered. "He's the man you ought to
+get hold of."
+
+"Some day I hope that we may," Lutchester declared. "For the moment,
+however, we want him undisturbed. You would scarcely believe it,
+perhaps, if I told you that the theft of your formulas is only a slight
+thing compared to the bigger business that man has on hand. There is
+something else at the back of his head which is worth heaven and earth
+to us to understand. We want the formula and we shall have it, but more
+than anything else in the world we want to know why Fischer has pledged
+his word in Berlin to bring this war to an end within three months. We
+have to find that out, and we are going to find it out--from him. You
+see, I have treated you with confidence, Captain Graham. Now let me
+show you to your room." Graham put his hand to his forehead.
+
+"I feel as though this were some sort of nightmare," he muttered. "I've
+known you for several months, Mr. Lutchester, and I have never heard
+you say a serious word. You dance at Henry's; you made a good soldier,
+they said, but you'd had enough of it in twelve months; you play
+auction bridge in the afternoons; and you talk about the war as though
+it were simply an irritating circumstance. And to-night--"
+
+Lutchester threw open the door of his own bedroom and pointed to the
+bathroom beyond.
+
+"My man has put out everything he thinks you may want," he said. "Try
+and get a good night's sleep. And, Graham."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Don't bother your head about me, and don't ask any more questions."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The _Lapland_ was two days out from Tilbury before Pamela appeared on
+deck, followed by her maid with an armful of cushions, and the deck
+steward with her rugs. She had scarcely made herself comfortable in a
+sunny corner when she was aware of the approach of a large, familiar
+figure. Her astonishment was entirely genuine.
+
+"Mr. Fischer!" she exclaimed. "Why, how on earth did you catch this
+steamer? I thought you were coming on the Thursday boat?"
+
+"Some inducement to change my mind," Mr. Fischer replied, drawing a
+chair up to her side.
+
+"Meaning me?"
+
+"I guess that's so!"
+
+"Of course, I'm exceedingly flattered," Pamela observed, "or rather I
+should be if I believed you, but I don't see how you could leave a
+supper-party at Henry's and go straight to Tilbury."
+
+"Say, how did you know I was supping at Henry's?" he inquired.
+
+"Because I was there for luncheon myself, as you know," she answered
+carelessly, "and I heard you order your table for supper."
+
+Mr. Fischer nodded reminiscently.
+
+"I always wind up with a little supper at Henry's, on my last night in
+London," he remarked. "It left me two hours to get down to Tilbury, but
+it don't take me long to start for anywhere when I once make up my
+mind. That's the American of us, I suppose. Besides, I never need much
+in the way of luggage. I keep clothes over on the other side and
+clothes in New York, and a grip always ready packed for a journey."
+
+"You're so typical," she murmured, smiling.
+
+"I don't know about that," he replied. "My business makes it necessary
+for me to be always on the go. Have you heard from your brother
+lately?"
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"Jimmy is the most terrible correspondent," she complained. "I don't
+think I've had any mail from him for two months."
+
+"You didn't know that he and I were sharing rooms together, then, in
+the Plaza Hotel, I suppose?"
+
+Pamela turned her head a little and gazed at her companion in genuine
+surprise.
+
+"Sharing rooms in the Plaza Hotel?" she repeated.... "You and Jimmy?"
+
+"I guess that's so," Mr. Fischer assented. "We were doing business
+together one day, and the subject cropped up somehow or other. Your
+brother was thinking of making a move, and I'd just been shown these
+rooms, which were a trifle on the large side for me. I made him an
+offer and he jumped at it."
+
+"I hope you're not leading James into extravagant ways," she remarked
+anxiously. "I loved his little apartment in Forty-Second Street and it
+was so inexpensive."
+
+"Your brother's share of these rooms isn't anything more than he can
+afford," Mr. Fischer assured her. "That I can promise you. I guess his
+firm is doing well just now. If they've many more clients like me they
+are."
+
+"It is very nice of you to put business in his way," Pamela said
+thoughtfully. "I wonder why you do it, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Why shouldn't I?"
+
+"Well," Pamela went on, her eyes travelling out seaward for a moment,
+"you seem to be one of those sort of men, Mr. Fischer, who never do
+anything without an object."
+
+"_Some_ powers of observation," he admitted blithely.
+
+"You have an object in being kind to Jimmy, then?"
+
+Mr. Fischer produced a cigar case and selected a cheroot.
+
+"Mind my smoking?"
+
+"Not in the least. The only time I mind things is when people don't
+answer my questions."
+
+"I was only kind of hesitating," Mr. Fischer went on, leaning back once
+more in his chair. "You want the truth, don't you?"
+
+"I never think anything else is worth while."
+
+"In the first place, then," her companion began, "your brother belongs
+to what I suppose is known as the exclusive set in New York. I am a
+Westerner with few friends there. Through him I have obtained
+introductions to several people whom it was interesting to me, from a
+business point of view, to know."
+
+"I see," Pamela murmured. "You are at least frank, Mr. Fischer."
+
+"I am going to be more frank still," he promised her. "Then another
+reason, of course, was because I liked him, and a third, which I am not
+sure wasn't the chief of all, because he was your brother."
+
+Pamela laughed gaily.
+
+"Is that necessary?"
+
+"Necessary or not, it's the truth," he assured her. "I am a man of
+quick impressions and lasting ones."
+
+"But we've never met except on a steamer," Pamela reminded him.
+
+"I know it's the fashion," Mr. Fischer said, "to turn up one's nose at
+steamer acquaintances. It isn't like that with me. You see, I don't
+have as much opportunity of meeting folk as some others, perhaps. The
+most interesting people I've known socially I've met on steamers. I sat
+at your table, side by side with you, Miss Van Teyl, for seven days a
+few months ago. I guess I'll remember those seven days as long as I
+live."
+
+Pamela turned her head and looked at him. The faintly derisive smile
+died away from her lips. The man was in earnest. A certain curiosity
+stole into her eyes as the seconds passed. She studied his hard, strong
+face, with its great jaw and prominent forehead; the mouth, a little
+too full, and belying the rest of his physiognomy, yet with its own
+peculiar strength. He had taken off his spectacles, and it seemed to
+her that the cold, flinty light of his eyes had caught for a moment
+some touch of the softer blue of the sea or the sky. Seated, he lost
+some of the awkwardness of his too great and ill-carried height. It
+seemed to her that he was at least a person to be reckoned with, either
+in friendship or enmity.
+
+"Are you an American born, Mr. Fischer," she asked him.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I was born at Offenbach," he told her, "near Frankfurt. My father
+brought me out to America when I was eleven years old."
+
+"You must find the present condition of things a little trying for
+you," she observed.
+
+Oscar Fischer put on his glasses again. He did not answer for several
+moments.
+
+"That opens up a subject, Miss Van Teyl," he said, "which some day I
+should like to discuss with you."
+
+"Why not now?" she invited. "I feel much more inclined for conversation
+than reading."
+
+"Tell me, then, to begin with," he asked thoughtfully, "on which side
+are your sympathies?"
+
+"I try to do my duty as an American citizen," she replied promptly,
+"and that is to have no sympathies. Our dear country has set the world
+an example of what neutrality should be. I think it is the duty of us
+Americans to try and bring ourselves into exactly the same line of
+feeling."
+
+He changed his position a little uneasily. His attitude became less of
+a sprawl. His eyes were fixed upon her face.
+
+"I fear," he said, "that we are going to begin by a disagreement. I do
+not consider that America has realised in the least the duties of a
+neutral nation."
+
+"You must explain that at once, if you please, before we go any
+further," Pamela insisted.
+
+"Is this neutrality?" Fischer demanded, his rather harsh voice almost
+raucous now with a touch of real feeling. "America ships daily millions
+of dollars' worth of those things that make war possible, to France, to
+Italy, above all to England. She keeps them supplied with ammunition,
+clothing, scientific instruments, food--a dozen things which make war
+easier. To Germany she sends nothing. Is that neutrality?"
+
+"But America is perfectly willing to deal in the same way with
+Germany," Pamela pointed out. "German agents can come and place their
+orders and take away whatever they want. The market is as much open to
+her as to the Allies."
+
+Fischer was sitting bolt upright in his chair now. There was a little
+spot of colour in his cheeks and his eyes flashed behind his
+spectacles. He struck the side of the chair. He was very angry.
+
+"That is Jesuitical," he declared. "It is perfectly well-known that
+Germany is not in a position to fetch munitions from America.
+Therefore, I say that there is no neutrality in supplying one side in
+the war with goods which the other is unable to procure."
+
+"Then you place upon America the onus of Germany's naval inferiority,"
+Pamela remarked drily.
+
+"Germany's maritime inferiority does not exist," Mr. Fischer protested.
+"When the moment arrives that the High Seas fleet comes out for action
+the world will know the truth."
+
+"Then hadn't it better come," Pamela suggested, "and clear the ocean
+for your commerce?"
+
+"That isn't the point," Fischer insisted. "We have wandered from the
+main issue. I say that America abandons its neutrality when it helps
+the Allies to continue the war."
+
+"I don't think you will find," Pamela replied, "that international law
+prevents any neutral country from supplying either combatant with
+munitions. If one country can fetch the things and the other can't,
+that is the misfortune of the country that can't. For one moment look
+at the matter from England's point of view. She has built up a mighty
+navy to keep the seas clear for exactly this purpose--to continue her
+commerce from abroad. Germany instead has built up a mighty army, with
+which she has overrun Europe. Germany has had the advantage from her
+army. Why shouldn't England have the advantage from her navy?"
+
+"Let me ask you the question you asked me a few minutes ago," her
+companion begged. "Were you born in America--or England?"
+
+"I was born in America," Pamela told him; "so were my parents and my
+grandparents. I claim to be American to the backbone. I claim even to
+treat any sympathies I might have in this affair as prejudices, and not
+even to allow them a single corner in my brain."
+
+Mr. Fischer sat quite still for several moments. He was struggling very
+hard to keep his temper. In the end he succeeded.
+
+"We will not, then, pursue the subject of America's neutrality," he
+said, "because it is obvious that we disagree fundamentally. But tell
+me this, now, as an American and a patriot. Which do you think would be
+better for America--That Germany and Austria won this war, or the
+Allies?"
+
+"Upon that question I have not altogether made up my mind," Pamela
+confessed.
+
+"Then there is room there for a discussion," Mr. Fischer pointed out
+eagerly. "I should like to put my views before you on this matter."
+
+"And I should love to hear them," Pamela replied, "but I feel just now
+as though we had talked enough politics. Do you know that I came up on
+deck in a state of great agitation?"
+
+"Submarine alarms from the stewardess?" Mr. Fischer suggested.
+
+"I am not afraid of submarines, but I have a most profound dislike for
+thieves," Pamela declared.
+
+"You have not had anything stolen?" he asked quickly.
+
+"I have not," Pamela replied, "but the only reason seems to be that I
+have nothing worth stealing. When I got back from luncheon this
+afternoon I found that my stateroom had been systematically searched."
+
+She turned her head a little lazily and looked at her neighbour. His
+expression was entirely sympathetic.
+
+"Your jewellery?"
+
+"Deposited with the purser."
+
+"I congratulate you," he said.
+
+"Nothing has been stolen," she observed, "but one hates the feeling of
+insecurity, all the same. Both my steward and stewardess are old
+friends. It must have been a very clever person who found his way into
+my room."
+
+"A very clever person," Mr. Fischer objected, "would have known that
+you had deposited your jewels with the purser."
+
+"If it was my jewels of which they were in search," Pamela murmured.
+"By the bye, do you remember all that fuss about the disappearance of a
+young soldier that morning at Henry's?"
+
+Fischer nodded.
+
+"I heard something about it," he confessed. "They were talking about it
+at dinner-time."
+
+"I had an idea that you might be interested," Pamela went on. "He was
+rather a foolish young man. He came into the restaurant telling every
+one at the top of his voice that he had made a great discovery! Even in
+London, which is, I should think, the most prosaic city in the world,
+there must be people who are on the lookout to pick up war secrets."
+
+"Even in London, as you remark," Fischer assented.
+
+"You didn't hear the end of the affair, I suppose?" she asked him.
+
+The steward had arrived with afternoon tea. Fischer threw into the sea
+the cigar which he had been smoking.
+
+"I do not think," he said, "that the end has been reached yet."
+
+Pamela sighed.
+
+"Les oreilles ennemies!" she quoted. "I suppose one has to be careful
+everywhere."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+It was one evening towards the end of the voyage, and about an hour
+after dinner. A huge form loomed out of the darkness, continuing its
+steady promenade along the unlit portion of the deck. Pamela, moved by
+some caprice, abandoned her caution of the last few days and called
+out.
+
+"Mr. Fischer!"
+
+He stopped short. The sparks flew from the red end of his cigar, which
+he tossed into the sea. He hastened towards her.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl?" he replied, a little hesitatingly.
+
+"How clever of you to know my voice!" she observed. "I am in the humour
+to talk. Will you sit down, please?"
+
+Mr. Fischer humbly drew a chair to her side.
+
+"I had an idea," he said, "that you had been avoiding me the last two
+or three days."
+
+"I have," she admitted.
+
+"Have I offended you, then?"
+
+"Scarcely that," she replied, "only, you see, it seemed waste of time
+to talk to you with the foils on, and a little dangerous, perhaps, to
+talk to you with them off."
+
+His face reflected his admiration.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl," he declared, "you are quite a wonderful person. I have
+never believed very much in women before. Perhaps that is the reason
+why I have never married."
+
+"Dear me, are you a woman-hater?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her steadfastly.
+
+"I have made use of women as playthings," he confessed. "Until I met
+you I never thought of them as companions, as partners."
+
+She laughed at him through the darkness, and at the sound of her laugh
+his eyes glowed.
+
+"Really, I am very much flattered," she said. "You give me credit for
+intelligence, then?"
+
+"I give you credit for every gift a woman should have," he answered
+enthusiastically. "I recognise in you the woman I have sometimes
+dreamed of."
+
+Again she laughed.
+
+"Don't tell me, Mr. Fischer," she protested, "that ever in your
+practical life you have spent a single moment in dreams?"
+
+"I have spent many," he assured her, "but they have all been since I
+knew you."
+
+Pamela sighed.
+
+"I have never been through a voyage," she observed, "without a love
+affair. Still, I never suspected you, Mr. Fischer."
+
+"You suspected me, perhaps, of other things."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I am full of suspicions about you," she admitted. "I am not going to
+tell you what they are, of course."
+
+"There is one thing of which I am guilty," he confessed. "I should like
+to tell you about it right now."
+
+"Could I guess it?"
+
+"You're clever enough."
+
+"You like me, don't you, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Better than any woman in the world," he answered promptly. "And my
+confession is--well, just that. Will you marry me?"
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"Quite early in life," she confided, "I made up my mind that I would
+never give a definite answer to any one who proposed to me on a
+steamer. I suppose it's the wind, or is it the stars, or the silence,
+or what? I have known the sanest of men, even like you, Mr. Fischer,
+become quite maudlin."
+
+"I am brimful of common sense at the present moment," he declared
+earnestly. "You and I could do great things together, if only I could
+get you to look at one certain matter from my point of view; to see it
+as I see it."
+
+"A political matter?" she inquired naively.
+
+"I want to try and persuade you," he confessed, "that America has
+everything in the world to gain from Germany's success, and everything
+to lose if the Allies should triumph in this war and Great Britain
+should continue her tyranny of the seas."
+
+"It's an extraordinarily interesting subject," Pamela admitted.
+
+"It is almost as absorbing," he declared, "as the other matter which
+just now lies even nearer to my heart."
+
+She withdrew her fingers from his sudden clutch.
+
+"Mr. Fischer," she told him, "what I said just now was quite final. I
+will not be made love to on a steamer."
+
+"When we land," he continued eagerly, "you will be coming to see your
+brother, won't you?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Of course! I am coming to the Plaza Hotel. That, I suppose, is good
+news for you, Mr. Fischer."
+
+"Of course it is," he answered, "but why do you say so?"
+
+"It will give you so many opportunities," she murmured.
+
+"Of seeing you?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Of searching my belongings."
+
+There was a moment's silence. She heard his quick breath through the
+darkness. His voice assumed its harsher tone.
+
+"You believe that it was I who searched your stateroom?"
+
+"I am sure that it was you, or some one acting for you."
+
+"What is it, then, of which I am in search?" he demanded.
+
+"Captain Graham's formula," she replied. "I think you want that a good
+deal more than you want me."
+
+"You have it then?" he asked fiercely.
+
+She sighed.
+
+"You jump so to conclusions. I didn't say so."
+
+"You went up the stairs ... you were the only person who went up just
+at that one psychological moment! He had his pocketbook with him when
+he came in--he told Holderness so."
+
+"And when you searched him it was gone," she remarked calmly. "Dear
+me!"
+
+"How do you know that I searched him?" Fischer demanded.
+
+"How dare you ask me to give away my secrets?" she replied.
+
+"Listen," he began, striving with an almost painful effort to keep his
+voice down to the level of a whisper, "you and I together, we could do
+the most marvellous things. I could let you into all my schemes. They
+are great. They will be successful. After the war is over--"
+
+He held his breath for a moment. The tramp of approaching footsteps
+warned him of the coming of an intruder. The Captain came to a
+standstill before their chairs and saluted.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl," he said, "there will be a mutiny in the saloon if you
+don't come down and sing."
+
+She almost sprang to her feet. The ship was rolling a little, and she
+laid her fingers upon his arm.
+
+"I meant to come long ago," she declared, "but Mr. Fischer has been so
+interesting. You will finish telling me your experiences another time,
+won't you?" she called out over her shoulder. "There is so much that I
+still want to hear."
+
+Fischer's reply was almost ungracious. He watched their departure in
+silence, and afterwards leaned further back in his chair. With long,
+nervous fingers he drew a black cigar from his case and lit it. Then he
+folded his arms. For more than half an hour he sat there motionless,
+smoking furiously. He looked out into the chaos of the windy darkness,
+he heard voices riding upon the seas, shrieking and calling to him,
+voices to which he had been deaf too long. The burden of these later
+years of turbulent, brazen, selfish struggling, rolled back. He had
+been a sentimentalist once, a willing seeker after things which seemed
+to have passed him by. At his age, he told himself, a man should still
+find more than one place in the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+James Van Teyl glanced curiously at the small, dark figure standing
+patiently before him, and then back again at the wireless cable which
+he held in his fingers. He was just back from a tiring day in Wall
+Street, and was reclining in the most comfortable easy-chair of his
+Hotel Plaza sitting-room.
+
+"Gee!" he murmured. "This beats me. The last thing I should have
+thought we wanted here was a valet. The fellow who looks after this
+suite has scarcely anything else to do. What did you say your name
+was?"
+
+"Nikasti, sir."
+
+Van Teyl carefully reconsidered the cable. It certainly seemed to leave
+no room for misunderstanding.
+
+Please engage for our service, as valet, Nikasti. See that he enters on
+his duties at once. Hope land this evening. Your sister on board sends
+love.--F.
+
+"Well that seems clear enough," the young man muttered, thrusting the
+form into his waistcoat pocket. "You're here to stay, I guess, Nikasti?
+I see you've brought your kit along."
+
+"In case you decided to engage me, sir," the man replied.
+
+"Oh, you are engaged right enough," Van Teyl assured him. "You'd better
+make the best job you can of putting out my evening clothes. If you
+ring for the floor valet, he'll help you. The bedrooms are through that
+door."
+
+"Very good, sir!"
+
+"I am going down to the barber's now," Van Teyl continued, rising to
+his feet. "Just remember this, Nikasti--what a name, by the bye!"
+
+"I could be called Kato," the man suggested.
+
+"Kato for me all the time," his prospective employer agreed. "Well,
+listen. My sister, Miss Van Teyl, arrives from Europe on the _Lapland_
+this evening. If she comes in or rings up, say I'm here and I want to
+see her at once. You understand?"
+
+"I understand, sir."
+
+Van Teyl strolled out, and Kato disappeared into the inner room. The
+floor valet, dressed in the dark blue livery of the hotel, was already
+laying out his master's dinner clothes. He eyed the intruder a little
+truculently.
+
+"Who are you, anyway?" he inquired.
+
+"My name is Nikasti," was the quiet reply. "Mr. Van Teyl has engaged me
+as his valet, to wait upon him and Mr. Fischer."
+
+The man laid down the shirt into which he was fixing the studs.
+
+"That's some news," he remarked bitterly.
+
+"To wait on Mr. Van Teyl and Mr. Fischer, eh? What the hell do they
+want you for?"
+
+Nikasti shook his head slowly. He was very small, and his dark eyes
+seemed filled with melancholy.
+
+"It is not for a very long time," he ventured.
+
+"Long enough to do me out of my five dollars' tip every week," the man
+grumbled. "I'm a married man, too, and a good American. Blast you
+fellows, coming and taking our jobs away! Can't think what they let you
+into the country for."
+
+"I am sorry," Nikasti murmured.
+
+"Your sorrow don't bring me in my five dollars," the valet retorted
+bitterly. "There's only two suites on this floor to work for, anyway,
+and this is the only one worth a cent."
+
+"I am taking the situation," the other explained, "for the sake of
+experience. I do not wish to rob you of your earnings. I will pay you
+the five dollars a week while I stay here. You shall help me with the
+work."
+
+"That's a deal, my little yellow-skinned kid," the valet agreed in a
+tone of relief. "I'll show you where the things are kept."
+
+His new coadjutor bowed.
+
+"The telephone is ringing in the master's room," he observed. "You
+shall remain here, and I will answer it."
+
+"That goes, Jappy," the man acquiesced. "If it's a young lady take her
+name, but don't say that Mr. Van Teyl's about. Forward young baggages
+some of them are."
+
+Nikasti glided from the room, closed the door, and approached the
+telephone receiver.
+
+"Yes," he acknowledged, "these are the rooms of Mr. Van Teyl... No,
+madam, Mr. Van Teyl is not in at present."
+
+There was a moment's pause. Nikasti's face was impenetrable as he
+listened, but his eyes glowed.
+
+"Yes, I understand, madam," he said softly. "You are Miss Van Teyl, and
+you wish to speak to your brother. The moment Mr. Van Teyl returns I
+will ring you up or fetch you."
+
+He replaced the receiver upon its hook, and returned to the bedroom.
+For some little time he was initiated into the mysteries of his new
+master's studs, boots and shoes, and general taste in wearing apparel.
+Then the latter entered the sitting-room, and Nikasti obeyed his
+summons.
+
+"Anyone called me up?" he inquired.
+
+"No one, sir."
+
+Van Teyl glanced at the clock in an undecided manner.
+
+"I'll change right away," he decided. "Just set things to rights in
+here, fill my cigarette case, and hang round by the telephone."
+
+Nikasti bowed, and the young man disappeared into the inner room. His
+new attendant waited until the door was closed. Then he removed the
+receiver from its hook, laid it upon the table, and moved stealthily
+towards the open fireplace. For several moments he remained in an
+attitude of listening, then with quick, lithe fingers he drew from his
+pocket a cable dispatch, reread it with an air of complete absorption,
+and committed it to the flames. He watched it burn, and turned away
+from the contemplation of its grey ashes with a sigh of content.
+Suddenly he started. The door of the sitting-room had been opened and
+closed. A tall, broad-shouldered man, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, a
+long travelling coat and a Homburg hat, was standing watching him.
+Nikasti was only momentarily disturbed. His look of gentle inquiry was
+perfect.
+
+"You wish to see my master--Mr. Van Teyl?" he asked.
+
+"Where is he?" Fischer demanded.
+
+"He is dressing in the next apartment. I will take him your name."
+
+Fischer threw his coat and hat upon the table.
+
+"That'll do directly," he replied. "So you're Nikasti?"
+
+They looked at one another for a moment. The face of the Japanese was
+smooth, bland, and imperturbable. His eyes were innocent even of any
+question. Fischer's forehead was wrinkled, and his brows drawn close
+together.
+
+"I am Nikasti," the other acknowledged--"Kato Nikasti. Mr. Van Teyl has
+just engaged me as his valet."
+
+"You can take off the gloves," Fischer told him. "I am Oscar Fischer."
+
+"Oscar Fischer," Nikasti repeated.
+
+"Yes! ... Burning something when I came in weren't you? Looked like a
+cable, eh?"
+
+"A dispatch from London," Nikasti confided.
+
+"Nothing that would interest me, eh?"
+
+"It was a family message," was the calm response. "It did not concern
+the affair which is between us."
+
+"How came you to speak English like this?" Fischer inquired.
+
+"I was at Oxford University for two years," Nikasti told him, "and in
+the Embassy at London for five more."
+
+"Before you took up your present job, eh?"
+
+Nikasti assented silently. Fischer glanced around as though to make
+sure that they were still alone.
+
+"I have the communication with me," he announced, "which we are to
+discuss. The terms of our proposal are clearly set out, and they are
+signed by the Highest of all himself. The letter embodying them was
+handed to me three weeks ago to-day in Berlin. Have you been to
+Washington?"
+
+Nikasti shook his head.
+
+"I do not go to Washington," he said. "You will understand that
+diplomatically, as you would put it, I do not exist. Neither is it
+necessary. I am here to listen."
+
+Fischer nodded.
+
+"There need be very little delay, then," he observed, "before we get to
+work."
+
+Nikasti bowed and raised his forefinger in warning.
+
+"I think," he whispered, "that Mr. Van Teyl has finished dressing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Van Teyl, as he hastened forward to meet his friend, presented at first
+sight a very good type of the well-groomed, athletic young American. He
+was over six feet tall, with smooth, dark hair brushed back from his
+forehead, a strong, clean-shaven face and good features. Only, as he
+drew nearer, there was evident a slight, unnatural quivering at the
+corner of his lips. The cordiality of his greeting, too, was a little
+overdone.
+
+"Welcome home, Fischer! Why, man, you're looking fine. Had a pleasant
+voyage?"
+
+"Storms for the first few days--after that all right," Fischer replied.
+
+"Any submarines?"
+
+"Not a sight of one. Seen your sister yet?"
+
+"Not yet. I've been waiting about for a telephone message. She hadn't
+arrived, a few minutes ago."
+
+Fischer frowned.
+
+"I want us three to meet--you and she and I--the first moment she sets
+foot in the hotel," he declared.
+
+"What's the hurry?" Van Teyl demanded. "You must have seen plenty of
+her the last ten days."
+
+"That," Fischer insisted, "was a different matter. See here, Jimmy,
+I'll be frank with you."
+
+He walked to the door of the bedroom, opened it, and looked inside. Its
+sole occupant was Nikasti, who was at the far end, putting away some
+clothes. Fischer closed the door firmly and returned.
+
+"I want you to understand this, James," he began. "Your sister is
+meddling in certain things she'd best leave alone."
+
+Van Teyl lit a cigarette.
+
+"No use talking to me," he observed. "Pamela's her own mistress, and
+she's gone her own way ever since she came of age."
+
+"She's got to quit," Fischer pronounced. "That's all there is about it.
+You and I will have to talk this out. Where are you dining?"
+
+"Downstairs," Van Teyl replied gloomily. "I was thinking of waiting for
+Pamela."
+
+"You leave word to have your people let you know directly she arrives,"
+Fischer advised, "and come along with me."
+
+Van Teyl allowed himself to be led towards the door. Nikasti, with a
+due sense of his new duties, glided past them, rang for the lift, and
+watched them descend. Fischer turned at once towards the dining room.
+
+"Thank God we're in a civilised country," he observed, "and that I
+don't have to change when I don't want to!"
+
+They found a quiet table, and Fischer, displaying much interest in the
+menu, ordered a somewhat extensive dinner.
+
+"Grapefruit and Maryland chicken are worth coming back to," he
+declared. "Now see here, James, let's get to business. You've got to
+help me with your sister."
+
+"But how?" Van Teyl demanded. "Pamela and I are good pals, of course,
+but she has a will of her own in all she does, and I don't fancy that
+anything I could say would influence her very much."
+
+"There are two things about your sister," Fischer continued. "The first
+is that she's got to quit this secret service business she's got
+herself mixed up in."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense!" Van Teyl exclaimed. "Pamela doesn't care a fig
+about politics."
+
+Fischer grunted scornfully.
+
+"You don't know much about your sister, young fellow," he said.
+"Internal politics over here may not interest her a cent, but she's
+crazy about America as a country, and she's shrewd enough to see things
+coming that a great many of you over here aren't looking for. Anyway,
+she came bang up against me in a little scheme I had on the night
+before I left Europe, and somewhere about her she's got concealed a
+document which I'd gladly buy for a quarter of a million dollars."
+
+Van Teyl drank off his second cocktail.
+
+"Some money!" he observed. "How did she come by the prize?"
+
+"Played up for it, just as I did," Fischer replied. "She was clever
+enough to make use of my scaffolding, and got up the ladder first. I'm
+not squealing, but I've got to have that document, whatever it costs
+me."
+
+Van Teyl was silent for a moment. There was an undercurrent of
+something threatening in his companion's manner, of which he had taken
+note.
+
+"And the second thing you mentioned?" he asked. "What is that?"
+
+Fischer, as though to give due emphasis to his statement, indulged in a
+brief pause. Then he leaned a little forward and spoke very slowly and
+very forcibly.
+
+"I want to marry her," he declared.
+
+Van Teyl learned back in his chair and gazed at his vis-a-vis in blank
+astonishment.
+
+"You must be a damned fool, Fischer!" he exclaimed.
+
+"You think so?" was the unruffled reply. "I wonder why?"
+
+"I'll tell you why, if you want to know," Van Teyl continued bluntly.
+"I know of four of the richest and best-looking young men in America,
+two ambassadors, an English peer, and an Italian prince, who have
+proposed to Pamela during the last twelve months alone. She refused
+every one of them."
+
+"Well," Fischer remarked, "she must marry some time."
+
+Van Teyl looked at him insolently.
+
+"I shouldn't think you'd have a dog's chance," he pronounced.
+
+There was a little glitter behind Fischer's spectacles.
+
+"Up till now," he admitted smoothly, "I have not been fortunate. I must
+confess, however, that I was hoping for your good offices."
+
+"Pamela wouldn't take the slightest notice of anything I might say,"
+Van Teyl declared. "Besides, I should hate you to marry her."
+
+"A little blunt, are you not, my young friend?" Fischer remarked
+amiably. "Still, to continue, there is also the matter of that
+document. I must confess that I exercised all my ingenuity to obtain
+possession of it on the steamer."
+
+"You would!" Van Teyl muttered.
+
+"Your sister, however," Fischer continued, "was wise enough to have it
+locked up in the purser's safe the moment she set foot upon the
+steamer. She gave me the slip when she got it back, and eluded me,
+somehow, on the quay. She will scarcely have had time to part with it
+yet, though. When she arrives here to-night, it will in all probability
+be in her possession."
+
+"Well?" Van Teyl demanded. "You don't suggest that I should rob her of
+it, I suppose?"
+
+"Not at all," Fischer replied. "On the other hand, you might very well
+induce her to give it up voluntarily, or at least to treat with me."
+
+"You don't know Pamela," was Van Teyl's curt reply.
+
+"I know her sufficiently," Fischer went on, leaning over the table, "to
+believe that she would sacrifice a great deal to save her brother from
+Sing Sing."
+
+Van Teyl took the thrust badly. He started as though he had been
+stabbed, and his face became almost ghastly in its pallor. He tossed
+off a glass of wine hastily.
+
+"Just what do you mean by that?" he asked thickly.
+
+"Are you prepared," Fischer continued, "to have me visit your office
+to-morrow morning and examine my accounts and securities in the
+presence of your partners?"
+
+"Why not?" Van Teyl faltered. "What the hell do you mean?"
+
+"I mean, James Van Teyl," his companion declared, "that I should find
+you a matter of a hundred thousand dollars short. I mean that you've
+realised on some of my securities, gambled on your own account with the
+proceeds, and lost. You did this as regards one stock at least, with a
+forged transfer, which I hold."
+
+Van Teyl looked almost piteously around. Life seemed suddenly to have
+become an unreal thing--the crowds of well-dressed diners, the gentle
+splashing of the water from the fountains in the winter garden, the
+distant murmuring of music from behind the canopy of palms. So this was
+the end of it! All that week he had hoped against hope. He had been
+told of a sure thing. Next week he had meant to have a great gamble.
+Everything was to have gone his way, after all. And now it was too
+late. Fischer knew, and Fischer was a cruel man!...
+
+The unnatural silence came to an end. Only Fischer's voice seemed to
+come from a long way off.
+
+"Drink your wine, James Van Teyl," he advised, "and listen to me.
+You've been under obligations to me from the start. I meant you to be.
+I brought a great business to your firm, and I insisted upon having you
+interested. I had a motive, as I have for most things I do. You are
+well placed socially in New York, and I am not. You are also above
+suspicion, which I am not. It suited me to take this suite in the
+Plaza, nominally in our joint names, but to pay the whole account
+myself. It suited me because I required the shelter of your social
+position. You understand?"
+
+"I always understand," Van Teyl muttered.
+
+"Just so. Only, whereas you simply thought me a snob, I had in reality
+a different and very definite purpose. We come now, however, to your
+present obligation to me. I can, if I choose, tear up your forged
+transfer, submit to the loss of my money, and leave you secure. I shall
+do so if you are able to induce your sister to hand over to me those
+few lines of writing--to which, believe me, she has no earthly
+right--and to accept me as a prospective suitor."
+
+Van Teyl was drinking steadily now, but every mouthful of food seemed
+almost to choke him. Red-eyed and defiant, he faced his torturer.
+
+"You're talking rot!" he declared. "Pamela wouldn't marry you if you
+were the last man on earth, and if she's got anything she wants to
+keep, she'll keep it."
+
+"And see her brother disgraced," Fischer reminded him, "tried at the
+Criminal Court for theft and sent to Sing Sing? It's a good name in New
+York, yours, you know. The Van Teyls have held up their heads high for
+more than one generation. Your sister will not fancy seeing it dragged
+down into the mire."
+
+For a single moment the young man seemed about to throw himself upon
+his companion, Fischer, perfectly unmoved, watched him, nevertheless,
+like a cat.
+
+"Better sit tight," he enjoined. "Drop it now or people will be
+watching us. I have ordered some of the old brandy. A liqueur or two
+will steady you, perhaps. Afterwards we will go upstairs and take your
+sister into our confidence."
+
+Van Teyl nodded.
+
+"Very well," he agreed hoarsely. "We'll hear what Pamela has to say."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Nikasti, with a low bow, watched the disappearance of the lift into
+which his two new masters, James Van Teyl and Oscar Fischer, had
+stepped. He waited until the indicator registered its safe arrival on
+the ground floor. Then he slowly retraced his steps along the corridor,
+entered the sitting-room, and took up the telephone receiver, which was
+still lying upon the table.
+
+"Will you give me number 77," he asked--"Miss Van Teyl's suite?"
+
+There was a moment's silence--then a voice at the other end to which he
+made obeisance.
+
+"It is Miss Van Teyl who speaks? I am Mr. Van Teyl's valet. Mr. Van
+Teyl is here now and will be glad if you will come in."
+
+He replaced the receiver, listened and waited. In a few moments there
+was the sound of a light footstep outside. The door was opened and
+Pamela entered. She was still wearing the grey tailor-made costume in
+which she had left the steamer.
+
+"Why, where is Mr. Van Teyl?" she asked, looking around the room. "I
+have been ringing up for the last ten minutes and couldn't get any
+answer. I did not realise that it was the next suite."
+
+"Mr. Van Teyl is close at hand, madam," Nikasti replied. "If you will
+kindly be seated, I will fetch him."
+
+"How long have you been valet here?" Pamela asked curiously.
+
+"For a few hours only, madam," was the grave reply. "If you will be so
+good as to wait."
+
+He bowed low and left the room. Pamela took up an evening paper and for
+a few minutes buried herself in its contents. Then suddenly she held it
+away from her and listened. A queer and unaccountable impulse inspired
+her with a certain mistrust. There was no sound of movement in the
+adjoining bedchamber, nor any sign of her brother's presence. She
+opened the door and peered in. It was empty and in darkness. Then,
+moved by that same unaccountable impulse, she crossed the room and
+listened at the door which led into her own suite, and which she
+perceived was bolted on this side as well as her own. She listened at
+first idly, afterwards breathlessly. In a few moments she was convinced
+that her senses were not playing her false. Some one was moving
+stealthily about in her room, the key to which was even at that moment
+in her hand. She hastened to the door, to be confronted by another
+surprise. The handle turned but the door refused to open. She was
+locked in.
+
+Pamela was both generous and insistent in the matter of bells. She
+found four, and she rang them all together. The consequences were
+speedy, and in their way satisfactory. Nikasti himself, a breathless
+chambermaid, a hurt but dignified waiter, and the floor valet, who had
+not even stopped to put on his coat, entered together. They seemed a
+little stupefied at finding Pamela alone and no sign of any
+disturbance.
+
+"Why was I locked in here?" Pamela demanded indignantly, taking them
+en bloc.
+
+There was a little chorus of non-comprehension. Nikasti stepped
+forward, waved to the others to be silent, and bowed almost to the
+ground.
+
+"It was a mistake easily to be understood, madam," he explained. "The
+handle is a little stiff, perhaps, but the door was not locked. We all
+reached here together, I myself barely a yard in advance. No key was
+used--and behold!"
+
+Pamela was disposed to argue, but a moment's reflection induced her to
+change her mind. This falsehood of Nikasti's was at least interesting.
+She waved the hotel servants away.
+
+"I am sorry to have troubled you," she said. "I will remember it when I
+pay my bill."
+
+They took their leave, Nikasti showing them out. When the last had
+departed, he turned back to the centre table, from the other side of
+which Pamela was watching him curiously.
+
+"I cannot imagine," she remarked, "how I could have made such a mistake
+about the door. I tried it twice or three times and it certainly seemed
+to me to be locked."
+
+Nikasti moved a step nearer towards her. Something of the servility of
+his manner had gone. For the first time she looked at him closely,
+appreciated the tense immobility of his features, the still,
+penetrating light of his cold eyes. A queer premonition of trouble for
+a moment unsteadied her.
+
+"There was no mistake," he said softly. "The door was locked."
+
+Even then she did not fully understand the position. She leaned a
+little towards him.
+
+"It was locked?" she repeated.
+
+"I locked it," he told her. "It is locked now, securely. I have been
+searching in your room for something which I did not find. I think that
+you had better give it to me. It will save trouble."
+
+"Are you mad?" she demanded breathlessly.
+
+"Do I seem so?" he replied. "There is no person more sane than I. I
+require from you the formula of the new explosive, which you stole in
+Henry's restaurant eleven days ago."
+
+The sense of mystery passed. It was simply trouble of the ordinary sort
+from an unexpected source.
+
+"Dear me!" she murmured. "Every one seems interested in my little
+adventure. How did you hear about it?"
+
+"I destroyed the cable telling me of all that happened only a few
+minutes ago," he explained. "It was the foolish talk of the young
+inventor which gave his secret to the world to scramble for."
+
+"It was very clever of your informant," she remarked, "to suggest that
+I was the fortunate thief. Why not Oscar Fischer? It was his plot, not
+mine."
+
+The eyes of the little Japanese seemed suddenly to narrow. He realised
+quite well that she was talking simply to gain time.
+
+"Madam," he insisted, "the formula. It is for my country, and for my
+country I would risk much."
+
+"I do not doubt it," she replied; "but if I hold it, I hold it for my
+country, too, and there is nothing you would risk for Japan from which
+I should shrink for America."
+
+He laid his hands upon the table. She turned her ring and clenched her
+hand. She could see his spring coming, realised in those few seconds
+that here was an opponent of more desperate and subtle calibre than
+Joseph. Whether her wits might have failed her, fate remained her
+friend. There was a knock at the door.
+
+"You hear?" she cried breathlessly. "There is some one there. Shall I
+call out?"
+
+His hands and knee were gone from the table. He was once more his old
+self, so completely the servant that for a moment even Pamela was
+puzzled. It seemed as though the events of the last few seconds might
+have been part of a disordered dream. Nikasti played to the cue of her
+fevered question and entirely ignored them. He opened the door with a
+respectful flourish--and John Lutchester walked in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Pamela's first shock of surprise did not readily pass. In the first
+place, John Lutchester's appearance in America at all was entirely
+unexpected. In the second, by what possible means could he have arrived
+at this precise and psychological moment?
+
+"You!" she exclaimed, a little helplessly. "Mr. Lutchester!"
+
+He smiled as he shook hands. Nikasti had slipped noiselessly from the
+room. Pamela made no effort to detain him. She had a curious feeling
+that the things which had passed between them concerned their two
+selves only. So had no desire whatever to hand him over to retributive
+justice.
+
+"You are surprised," he observed. "So far as my presence here is
+concerned, I knew quite well that I was coming some time ago, but it
+was one of those matters, you understand, Miss Van Teyl, that one is
+scarcely at liberty to talk about. I am here in connection with my
+work."
+
+"Your work," she repeated weakly. "I thought that you were in the
+Ministry of Munitions?"
+
+"Precisely," he admitted. "I have a travelling inspectorship. You see,
+I don't mind telling you this, but it is just as well, if you will
+forgive my mentioning it, Miss Van Teyl, that these things are not
+spoken of to any one. My business over here is supposed to be secret. I
+am going round some of the factories from which we are drawing
+supplies."
+
+She drew a long breath and began to feel a little more like herself.
+
+"Well, after this," she declared, "I shall be surprised at nothing. I
+have had one shock already this evening, and you are the second."
+
+"The first, I trust, was not disagreeable?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Without flattering you," she answered, "I think I could say that I
+prefer the second."
+
+"I had an idea," Lutchester remarked diffidently, "that my arrival
+seemed either opportune or inopportune--I could not quite tell which.
+Were you in any way troubled or embarrassed by the presence of the
+little Japanese gentleman?"
+
+"Of course not," she replied. "Why, he is Jimmy's valet."
+
+"How absurd of me!" Lutchester murmured. "By the bye, if Jimmy is your
+brother--Mr. Van Teyl--I have a letter to him from a pal in town--Dicky
+Green. It was to present it that I found my way up here this evening. I
+was told that he might put me in the way of a little golf during my
+spare time over here."
+
+He produced the note and laid it upon the table. Pamela glanced at it
+and then at Lutchester. He was carefully dressed in dinner clothes,
+black tie and white waistcoat. He was, as usual, perfectly groomed and
+immaculate. He had what she could only describe to herself as an
+everyday air about him. He seemed entirely free from any mental
+pressure or the wear and tear of great events.
+
+"Golf?" she repeated wonderingly. "You expect to have a little spare
+time, then?"
+
+"Well, I hope so," Lutchester replied. "One must have exercise. By the
+bye," he went on, "is your brother in, do you happen to know? Perhaps
+it would be more convenient if I came round in the morning? I am
+staying in the hotel."
+
+"Oh, for goodness sake, don't go away," she begged. "Jimmy will be here
+presently, for certain. To tell you the truth, we have been rather
+playing hide-and-seek this evening, but it hasn't been altogether his
+fault. Please sit down over there--you will find cigarettes on the
+sideboard--and talk to me."
+
+"Delighted," he agreed, taking the chair opposite to her. "I suppose
+you want to know what became of poor Graham?"
+
+A sudden bewilderment appeared in her face. She leaned towards him. Her
+forehead was knitted, her eyes puzzled. There was a new problem to be
+solved.
+
+"Why, Mr. Lutchester," she demanded, "how on earth did you get here?"
+
+"Across the Atlantic," he replied amiably. "Bit too far the other way
+round."
+
+"Yes, but what on?" she persisted. "I went straight on to the _Lapland_
+after we parted last week, and only arrived here an hour or so ago.
+There was no other passenger steamer sailing for three days."
+
+"I was a stowaway," he told her confidentially--"helped to shovel coals
+all the way over."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense!" she protested a little sharply. "I dislike
+mysteries. Look at you! A stowaway, indeed! Tell me the truth
+at once?"
+
+He leaned forward in his chair towards her. An ingenuous smile parted
+his lips. He had the air of a schoolboy repeating a mischievous secret.
+
+"The fact is, Miss Van Teyl," he confided, "I don't want it talked
+about, you know, but I had a joy ride over."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"A joy ride," he repeated. "A cousin of mine is in command of a
+destroyer, and she was under orders to sail for New York. He hadn't the
+slightest right, really, to bring a passenger, as she was coming over
+on a special mission, but I had word about the trip over here, so I
+slipped on board late one night--not a word to any one, you
+understand--and--well, here I am. A more awful voyage," he went on
+impressively, "you couldn't imagine. I was sore all over within
+twenty-four hours of starting. There's practically no deck on those
+things, you know, for sitting out or anything of that sort. The British
+Navy's nowhere for comfort, I can tell you. The biggest liner for me,
+going back!"
+
+Pamela was still a little dazed. Lutchester's story did not sound in
+the least convincing. For the moment, however, she accepted his account
+of himself.
+
+"Tell me now," she begged, "about Captain Graham?"
+
+"You haven't heard, then?"
+
+"I have heard nothing. How should I hear?"
+
+"I took him straight back to my rooms after we left you," Lutchester
+began. "He was in an awful state of nerves and drugs and drink. Then I
+put him to bed as soon as I could, and rang up a pal of mine at the War
+Office to take him in hand."
+
+"Do you believe," she asked curiously, "that he had really been robbed
+of his formula?"
+
+"Those amiable people who were interviewing him in the chapel seemed to
+think so," Lutchester observed.
+
+"But you! What do you think?" she persisted. He smiled in superior
+fashion.
+
+"I find it rather hard to bring myself to believe that any one would
+take the trouble," he confided. "I have heard it said in my department
+that there have been thirty-one new explosives invented since the
+beginning of the war. Two of them only are in use, and they're not much
+better than the old stuff."
+
+Pamela nodded understandingly.
+
+"All the same," she remarked, "I am not at all sure that was the case
+with Captain Graham's invention. There were rumours for days before
+that something wonderful was happening on Salisbury Plain. They had to
+cover up whole acres of ground after his last experiments, and a man
+who was down there told me that it seemed just as though the life had
+been sucked out of it."
+
+"Where did you collect all this information?" her visitor inquired.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"One hears everything in London."
+
+Lutchester was sitting with his finger-tips pressed together. For a
+moment his attention seemed fixed upon them.
+
+"There are things," he said, "which one hears, too, in the far corners
+of the world--on the Atlantic, for instance."
+
+"You have had some news?" she interrupted.
+
+"It is really a private piece of information," he told her, "and it
+won't be in the papers--not the way the thing happened, anyway--but I
+don't suppose there's any harm in telling you, as we were both more or
+less mixed up in the affair. Graham was shot the next day, on his way
+up to Northumberland."
+
+"Shot?" she exclaimed incredulously.
+
+"Murdered, if you'd like the whole thrill," Lutchester continued. "Of
+course, we didn't get many particulars in the wireless, but we gathered
+that he was shot by some one passing him in a more powerful car on a
+lonely stretch of the Great North Road."
+
+Pamela shuddered. She was for the moment profoundly impressed. A
+certain air of unreality which had hung over the events of that night
+was suddenly banished. The whole tragedy rose up before her eyes. The
+effect of it was almost stupefying.
+
+"Gave me quite a shock," Lutchester confided. "Somehow or other I had
+never been able to take that night quite seriously. There was more than
+a dash of melodrama in it, wasn't there? Seems now as though those
+fellows must have been in earnest, though."
+
+"And as though Captain Graham's formula," she reminded him gravely,
+"was the real thing."
+
+"Whereupon," Lutchester observed, "our first interest in the affair
+receives a certain stimulus. Some one stole the formula. To judge from
+the behaviour of those amiable gentlemen connected with Henry's
+Restaurant, it wasn't they. Some one had been before them. Have you any
+theories, Miss Van Teyl?"
+
+"I can tell you who has," she replied. "Do you remember when we were
+all grouped around that notice--Mefiez-vous! Taisez-vous! Les oreilles
+ennemies vous ecoutent!?"
+
+"Of course I do," he assented.
+
+"Do you remember Baron Sunyea making a remark afterwards? He had been
+standing by and heard everything Graham said."
+
+"Can't say that I do," Lutchester regretted, "but I remember seeing him
+about the place."
+
+"You promise to say or do nothing without my permission, if I tell you
+something?" she went on.
+
+"Naturally!"
+
+"See, then, how diplomacy or secret service work, or whatever you like
+to call it, can gather the ends of the world together! Only a quarter
+of an hour ago that Japanese valet of my brother's, having searched my
+rooms in vain, demanded from me that formula!"
+
+"From you?" Lutchester gasped. "But you haven't got it!"
+
+"Of course not. On the other hand Sunyea pitched upon me as being one
+of the possible thieves, and cabled his instructions over."
+
+"Have you got it?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"If I had," she smiled, "I should not tell you."
+
+"But come," he expostulated, "the thing's no use to you."
+
+"So Baron Sunyea evidently thought," she laughed. "We'll leave that, if
+you don't mind."
+
+Lutchester was still looking a little bewildered.
+
+"I had an idea when I came in," he muttered, "that things were a little
+scrappy between you and the Japanese gentleman."
+
+She was suddenly serious.
+
+"Now that I have told you the truth," she said, "I really ought to
+thank you. You certainly seem to have a knack of appearing when you are
+wanted."
+
+"Fluke this time, I'm afraid," he acknowledged, "but I rather like the
+suggestion. You ought to see a great deal of me, Miss Van Teyl. Do you
+realise that I am a stranger in New York, and any hospitality you can
+show me may be doubly rewarded? Are you going to take me round and show
+me the sights?"
+
+"Are you going to have any time for sight-seeing?"
+
+"Well, I hope so. Why not? A fellow can't do more than a certain number
+of hours' work in a day."
+
+She looked at him curiously.
+
+"And yet," she murmured, "you expect to win the war!"
+
+"Of course we shall win the war," he assured her confidently. "You
+haven't any doubt about that yourself, have you, Miss Van Teyl?"
+
+"I don't know," she told him calmly.
+
+Lutchester was almost horrified. He rose to his feet and stood looking
+down at his companion.
+
+"Tell me what on earth you mean?" he demanded. "We always win in the
+long run, even if we muddle things about a little."
+
+"I was just contrasting in my mind," she said thoughtfully, "some of
+the Germans whom I have met since the war, with some of the Englishmen.
+They are taking it very seriously, you know, Mr. Lutchester. They don't
+find time for luncheon parties or sight-seeing."
+
+"That's just their way," he protested. "They turn themselves into
+machines. They are what we used to call suckers at school, but you can
+take my word for it that before next autumn they will be on the run."
+
+"You call them suckers," she observed. "That's because they're always
+working, always studying, always experimenting. Supposing they got hold
+of something like this new explosive?"
+
+"First of all," he told her, "I don't believe in it, and secondly, if
+it exists, the formula isn't in their hands."
+
+"Supposing it is in mine?" she suggested. "I might sell it to them."
+
+"I'd trust you all the time," he laughed lightheartedly. "I can't see
+you giving a leg up to the Huns.... Will you lunch with me at one
+o'clock to-morrow, please?"
+
+"Certainly not," she replied. "You must attend to your work, whatever
+it is."
+
+"That's all very well," he grumbled, "but every one has an hour off for
+luncheon."
+
+"People who win wars don't lunch," she declared severely. "Here's
+Jimmy--I can hear his voice--and he's brought some one up with him.
+I'll--let you know about lunch."
+
+The door opened. James Van Teyl and Fischer entered together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The first few seconds after the entrance of the two men were
+monopolised by the greetings of Pamela with her brother. Fischer stood
+a little in the background, his eyes fixed upon Lutchester. His brain
+was used to emergencies, but he found himself here confronted by an
+unanswerable problem.
+
+"Say, this is Mr. Lutchester, isn't it?" he inquired, holding out his
+hand.
+
+"The same," Lutchester assented politely. "We met at Henry's some ten
+days ago, didn't we?"
+
+"Mr. Lutchester has brought us a letter from Dicky Green, Jimmy,"
+Pamela explained, as she withdrew from her brother's arms. "Quite
+unnecessary, as it happens, because I met him in London just before we
+sailed."
+
+"Very glad to meet you, Mr. Lutchester," Jimmy declared, wringing his
+hand with American cordiality. "Dicky's an old pal of mine--one of the
+best. We graduated in the same year from Harvard."
+
+Conversation for a few minutes was platitudinous. Van Teyl, although he
+showed few signs of his recent excesses, was noisy and boisterous,
+clutching at this brief escape from a situation which he dreaded.
+Fischer on the other hand, remained in the back-ground, ominously
+silent, thinking rapidly, speculating and theorising as to the
+coincidence, if it were coincidence, of finding Lutchester and Pamela
+together. He listened to the former's polite conversation, never once
+letting his eyes wander from his face. All his thoughts were
+concentrated upon one problem. The mysterious escape of Sandy Graham,
+which had sent him flying from the country, remained unsolved. Of
+Pamela's share in it he had already his suspicions. Was it possible
+that Lutchester was the other and the central figure in that remarkable
+rescue? He waited his opportunity, and, during a momentary lull in the
+cheerful conversation, broke in with his first question.
+
+"Say, Mr. Lutchester, you haven't any twin brother, have you?"
+
+"No brother at all," Lutchester admitted.
+
+"Then, how did you get over here? You were at Henry's weren't you, on
+the night the _Lapland_ sailed? You didn't cross with us, and there's
+no other steamer due for two days."
+
+"Then I can't be here," Lutchester declared. "The thing's impossible."
+
+"Guess you'll have to explain, if you want to save me from a sleepless
+night," Fischer persisted.
+
+Lutchester smiled. He had the air of one enjoying the situation
+immensely.
+
+"Well," he said, "I have had to confess to Miss Van Teyl here, so I
+may as well make a clean breast of it to you. To every one else I meet
+in New York, I shall say that I came over on the _Lapland_. I really
+came over on a destroyer."
+
+Fischer's face seemed to become more set and grim than ever.
+
+"A British destroyer," he muttered to himself.
+
+"It was kind of a joy ride," Lutchester explained confidentially, "a
+cousin of mine who was in command came in to see me and say good-by,
+just after I'd received my orders from the head of my department to
+come out here on the next steamer, and he smuggled me on board that
+night. Mum's the word, though, if you please. We asked nobody's leave.
+It would have taken about a month to have heard anything definite from
+the Admiralty."
+
+"A British destroyer come across the Atlantic, eh?" Mr. Fischer
+muttered. "She must have come out on a special mission, then, I
+imagine."
+
+"That is not for me to say," Lutchester observed, with stiff reticence.
+
+Pamela suddenly and purposely intervened. She turned towards Fischer.
+
+"Mr. Lutchester brought some rather curious news," she observed. "He
+got it by wireless. Do you remember all the fuss there was about the
+disappearance of Captain Holderness' friend at Henry's?"
+
+"I heard something about it," he admitted grimly.
+
+"Well, Captain Graham was in my party, so naturally I was more
+interested than any one else. To all appearance he entered Henry's
+Restaurant, walked up the stairs, and disappeared into the skies. The
+place was ransacked everywhere for him, but he never turned up. Well,
+the very next day he was murdered in a motor-car on his way to
+Northumberland."
+
+"Incredible!" Fischer murmured.
+
+"Seems a queer set out," Lutchester remarked, "but it's quite true. He
+was supposed to have discovered a marvellous new explosive, the formula
+for which had been stolen. He was on his way up to Northumberland to
+make fresh experiments."
+
+"For myself I have little faith," Fischer observed, "in any new
+explosives. In Germany they believe, I understand, that the limit of
+destructiveness has been attained."
+
+"The Germans should know," Lutchester admitted carelessly. "I'm afraid
+they are still a good deal ahead of us in most scientific matters. I
+will take the liberty, of calling some time to-morrow, Miss Van Teyl,
+and hope I shall have the pleasure of improving my acquaintance with
+your brother. Good night, Mr. Fischer."
+
+"Are you staying in the hotel?" the latter inquired.
+
+"On the fifteenth floor," was the somewhat gloomy reply. "I shan't be
+able to shave in front of the window without feeling giddy. However, I
+suppose that's America. Good-by, everybody."
+
+With a little inclusive and farewell bow he disappeared. They heard him
+make his way down the corridor and ring for the lift. Rather a curious
+silence ensued, which was broken at last by Pamela.
+
+"Is that," she asked, throwing herself into an easy-chair and selecting
+a cigarette, "just an ordinary type of a nice, well-bred,
+unintelligent, self-sufficient Englishman, or--"
+
+"Or what?" Fischer asked, with interest.
+
+Pamela watched the smoke curl from the end of her cigarette.
+
+"Well, I scarcely know how to finish," she confessed, "only sometimes
+when I am talking to him I feel that he can scarcely be as big a fool
+as he seems, and then I wonder. Jimmy," she went on, shaking her head
+at him, "you're not looking well. You've been sitting up too late and
+getting into bad habits during my absence. Open confession, now, if you
+please. If it's a girl, I shall give you my blessing."
+
+Van Teyl groaned and said nothing. A foreboding of impending trouble
+depressed Pamela. She turned towards Fischer and found in his grim face
+confirmation of her fears.
+
+"What does this mean?" she demanded.
+
+"Your brother will explain," Fischer replied. "It is better that he
+should tell you everything."
+
+"Everything?" she repeated. "What is there to tell. What have you to do
+with my brother, anyway?" she added fiercely.
+
+"You must not look at me as though I were in any way to blame for what
+has happened," was the insistent reply. "On the contrary, I have been
+very lenient with your brother. I am still prepared to be lenient--upon
+certain conditions."
+
+The light of battle was in Pamela's eyes. She fought against the
+significance of the man's ominous words. This was his first blow, then,
+and directed against her.
+
+"I begin to understand," she said. "Please go on. Let me hear
+everything."
+
+Van Teyl had turned to the sideboard. He mixed and drank off a whisky
+and soda. Then he swung around.
+
+"I'll make a clean breast of it in a few words, Pamela," he promised.
+"I've gambled with Fischer's money, lost it, forged a transfer of his
+certificates to meet my liabilities, and I am in his power. He could
+have me hammered and chucked into Sing Sing, if he wanted to. That's
+all there is about it."
+
+Pamela stood the shock well. She turned to Fischer.
+
+"How much of this are you responsible for?" she asked.
+
+"That," he objected, "is an impotent question. It is not I who had the
+moulding of your brother's character. It is not I who made him a forger
+and a weakling."
+
+Van Teyl's arm was upraised. An oath broke from his lips. Pamela seized
+him firmly and drew him away.
+
+"Be quiet, James," she begged. "Let us hear what Mr. Fischer is going
+to do about it."
+
+"That depends upon you," was the cold reply.
+
+Pamela stood at the head of the table, between the two men, and
+laughed. Her brother had sunk into a chair, and his head had dropped
+moodily upon his folded arms. She looked from one to the other and a
+new sense of strength inspired her. She felt that if she were not
+indeed entirely mistress of the situation, yet the elements of triumph
+were there to her hand.
+
+"This is living, at any rate," she declared. "First of all I discover
+that your Japanese servant is a spy--"
+
+"Nikasti!" Van Teyl interrupted furiously. "Blast him! I knew that
+there was something wrong about that fellow, Fischer."
+
+Fischer frowned.
+
+"What's he been up to?" he inquired.
+
+"Well, to begin with," Pamela explained, "he searched my room, then he
+locked me in here, and was proceeding to threaten me when fortunately
+Mr. Lutchester arrived."
+
+"Threaten you--what about?" Fischer demanded.
+
+"He seemed to have an absurd idea," Pamela explained sweetly, "that I
+might have somewhere concealed upon my person the formula which was
+stolen from Captain Graham last Monday week at Henry's Restaurant. It
+makes quite a small world of it, doesn't it?"
+
+"I will deal with Nikasti for this," Fischer promised, "if it is true.
+Meanwhile?"
+
+"No sooner have I got over that little shock," Pamela went on, "than
+you turn up with this melodramatic story, and an offer from Mr.
+Fischer, which I can read in his face. Really, I feel that I shall hear
+the buzz of a cinema machine in a moment. How much do you owe him,
+Jimmy?"
+
+"Eighty-nine thousand dollars," the young man groaned.
+
+"I'll write you a cheque to-morrow morning," Pamela promised. "Will
+that do, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"It is the last thing I desire," was the calm reply.
+
+"Really! Well, perhaps now you will come to the point. Perhaps you will
+tell me what it is that you do want?"
+
+"Stolen property," Fischer announced deliberately--"stolen property,
+however, to which I have a greater right than you."
+
+She laughed at him mockingly.
+
+"I think not, Mr. Fischer," she said. "You really don't deserve it, you
+know."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Just see how you have bungled! You bait the trap, the poor man walks
+into it, and you allow another to forestall you. Not only that, but you
+actually allow Japan to come into the game, and but for Mr.
+Lutchester's appearance we might both of us have been left plante la.
+No, Mr. Fischer! You don't deserve the formula, and you shall not have
+it. I'll pay my brother's debt to you in dollars--no other way."
+
+"Dollars," Mr. Fischer told her sternly, "will never buy the forged
+transfer. Dollars will never keep your brother out of the city police
+court or Sing Sing afterwards. There isn't much future for a young man
+who has been through it."
+
+Van Teyl was upon him suddenly with a low, murderous cry. Fischer had
+no time to resist, no chance of success if he had attempted it. He was
+borne backwards on to the lounge, his assailant's hand upon his throat.
+The young man was beside himself with drink and fury. The words poured
+from his lips, incoherent, hot with rage.
+
+"You--hound! You've made my life a hell! You've plotted and schemed to
+get me into your power!... There! Do you feel the life going out of
+you?... My sister, indeed! You!... You scum of the earth! You ..."
+
+"James!"
+
+The sound of Pamela's voice unnerved him. His fit of passion was spent.
+She dragged him easily away.
+
+"Don't be a fool, Jimmy!" she begged. "You can't settle accounts like
+that."
+
+"Can't I?" he muttered. "If we'd been alone, Pamela ... my God, if he
+and I had been alone here!"
+
+"Jimmy," she said, "you're a fool, and you've been drinking. Fetch the
+water bottle."
+
+He obeyed, and she dashed water in Fischer's face. Presently he opened
+his eyes, groaned and sat up. There were two livid marks upon his
+throat. Van Teyl watched him like a crouching animal. His eyes were
+still lit with sullen fire. The lust for killing was upon him. Fischer
+sat up and blinked. He felt the atmosphere of the room, and he knew his
+danger. His hand stole into his hip pocket, and a small revolver
+suddenly flashed upon his knees. He drew a long breath of relief. He
+was like a fugitive who had found sanctuary.
+
+"So that's the game, James Van Teyl, is it?" he exclaimed. "Now
+listen."
+
+He adjusted the revolver with a click. His cruel, long fingers were
+pressed around its stock.
+
+"I am not threatening you," he went on. "I am not fond of violence, and
+I don't believe in it. This is just in case you come a single yard
+nearer to me. Now, Miss Van Teyl, my business is with you. We won't
+fence any longer. You will hand over to me the pocketbook which you
+stole from Captain Graham in Henry's Restaurant. Hand it over to me
+intact, you understand. In return I will give you the forged transfer
+of stock, and leave it to your sense of honour as to whether you care
+to pay your brother's debt or not. If you decline to consider my
+proposition, I shall ring up Joseph Neville, your brother's senior
+partner. I shall not even wait for to-morrow, mind. I shall make an
+appointment, and I shall place in his hands the proof of your brother's
+robbery."
+
+"Perhaps," Pamela murmured, "I was wrong to stop you. Jimmy....
+Anything else, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Just this. I would rather have carried this matter through in a
+friendly fashion, for reasons at which I think you can guess."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You flatter my intelligence!" she told him scornfully.
+
+"I will explain, then. I desire to offer myself as your suitor."
+
+She laughed at him without restraint or consideration.
+
+"I would rather marry my brother's valet!" she declared.
+
+"You are entirely wrong," he protested. "You are wrong, too, in holding
+up cards against me. We are on the same side. You are an American, and
+so am I. I swear that I desire nothing that is not for your good. You
+have wonderful gifts, and I have great wealth and opportunities. I have
+also a sincere and very heartfelt admiration for you."
+
+"I have never been more flattered!" Pamela scoffed.
+
+He looked a little wistfully from one to the other. Antagonism and
+dislike were written in their faces. Even Pamela, who was skilled in
+the art of subterfuge, made little effort to conceal her aversion.
+Nevertheless, he continued doggedly.
+
+"What does it matter," he demanded, "who handles this formula--you or
+I? Our faces are turned in the same direction. There is this difference
+only with me. I want to make it the basis of a kindlier feeling in
+Washington towards my father's country."
+
+Pamela's eyebrows were raised.
+
+"Are you sure," she asked, "that the formula itself would not find its
+way into your father's country?"
+
+"As to that I pledge my word," he replied. "I am an American citizen."
+
+"Looks like it, doesn't he!" Van Teyl jeered.
+
+"Tell us what you have been doing in Berlin, then?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"I had a definite mission there," Fischer assured them, "which I hope
+to bring to a definite conclusion. If you are an American citizen in
+the broadest sense of the word, England is no more to you than Germany.
+I want to place before some responsible person in the American
+Government, a proposal--an official proposal--the acceptance of which
+will be in years to come of immense benefit to her."
+
+"And the quid pro quo?" Pamela asked gently.
+
+"I am not here for the purpose of gratifying curiosity," Fischer
+replied, "but if you will take this matter up seriously, you shall be
+the person through whom this proposal shall be brought before the
+American Government. The whole of the negotiations shall be conducted
+through you. If you succeed, you will be known throughout history as
+the woman who saved America from her great and growing danger. If you
+fail, you will be no worse off than you are now."
+
+"And you propose to hand over the conduct of these negotiations to me,"
+Pamela observed, "in return for what?"
+
+"The pocketbook which you took from Captain Graham."
+
+"So there we are, back again at the commencement of our discussion,"
+Pamela remarked. "Are you going to repeat that you want this formula
+for Washington and not for Berlin?"
+
+"My first idea," Fischer confessed, "was to hand it over to Germany. I
+have changed my views. Germany has great explosives of her own. This
+formula shall be used in a different fashion. It shall be a lever in
+the coming negotiations between America and Germany."
+
+"We have had a great deal of conversation to no practical purpose,"
+Pamela declared. "Why are you so sure that I have the formula?"
+
+Fischer frowned slightly. He had recovered himself now, and his tone
+was as steady and quiet as ever. Only occasionally his eyes wandered to
+where James Van Teyl was fidgetting about the table, and at such times
+his fingers tightened upon the stock of his revolver.
+
+"It is practically certain that you have the papers," he pointed out.
+"You were the first person to go up the stairs after Graham had been
+rendered unconscious. Joseph admits that he had been forced to leave
+him--the orchestra was waiting to play. He was alone in that little
+room. That you should have known of its existence and his presence
+there is surprising, but nothing more. Furthermore, I am convinced that
+you were in some way concerned with his rescue later. You visited
+Hassan and you visited Joseph. From the latter you procured the key of
+the chapel. If only he had had the courage to tell the truth--well, we
+will let that pass. You have the papers, Miss Van Teyl. I am bidding a
+great price for them. If you are a wise woman, you will not hesitate."
+
+There was a knock at the door. They all three turned towards it a
+little impatiently. Even Pamela and her brother felt the grip of an
+absorbing problem. To their surprise, it was Lutchester who reappeared
+upon the threshold. In his hand he held a small sealed packet.
+
+"So sorry to disturb you all," he apologised. "I have something here
+which I believe belongs to you, Miss Van Teyl. I thought I'd better
+bring it up and explain. From the way your little Japanese friend was
+holding on to it, I thought it might be important. It is a little torn,
+but that isn't my fault."
+
+He held it out to Pamela. It was a long packet torn open at one end.
+From it was protruding a worn, brown pocketbook. Pamela's hand closed
+upon it mechanically. There was a dazed look in her eyes. Fischer's
+fingers stole once more towards the pocket into which, at Lutchester's
+entrance, he had slipped his revolver.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Lutchester, to all appearance, remained sublimely unconscious of the
+tension which his words and appearance seemed to have created. He had
+strolled a little further into the room, and was looking down at the
+packet which he still held.
+
+"You are wondering how I got hold of this, of course?" he observed.
+"Just one of those simple little coincidences which either mean a great
+deal or nothing at all."
+
+"How did you know it was mine?" Pamela asked, almost under her breath.
+
+"I'll explain," Lutchester continued. "I was in the lobby of the hotel,
+a few minutes ago, when I heard the fire bell outside. I hurried out
+and watched the engines go by from the sidewalk. I have always been
+rather interested in--"
+
+"Never mind that, please. Go on," Pamela asked, almost under her
+breath.
+
+"Certainly," Lutchester assented. "On the way back, then, I saw a
+little Japanese, who was coming out of the hotel, knocked down by a
+taxicab which skidded nearly into the door. I don't think he was badly
+hurt--I'm not even sure that he was hurt at all. I picked up this
+packet from the spot where he had been lying, and I was on the point of
+taking it to the office when I saw your name upon it, Miss Van Teyl, in
+what seemed to me to be your own handwriting, so I thought I'd bring it
+up."
+
+He laid it upon the table. Pamela's eyes seemed fastened upon it. She
+turned it over nervously.
+
+"It is very kind of you, Mr. Lutchester," she murmured.
+
+"I'll be perfectly frank," he went on. "I should have found out where
+the little man who dropped it had disappeared to, and restored it to
+him, but I fancied--of course, I may have been wrong--that you and he
+were having some sort of a disagreement, a few minutes ago, when I
+happened to come in. Anyway, that was in my mind, and I thought I'd run
+no risks."
+
+"You did the very kindest and most considerate thing," Pamela declared.
+
+"The little Japanese must have been our new valet," James Van Teyl
+observed. "I'm beginning to think that he is not going to be much of an
+acquisition."
+
+"You'll probably see something of him in a few minutes," Lutchester
+remarked. "I will wish you good night, Miss Van Teyl. Good night!"
+
+Pamela's reiterated thanks were murmured and perfunctory. Even James
+Van Teyl's hospitable instincts seemed numbed. They allowed Lutchester
+to depart with scarcely a word. With the closing of the door, speech
+brought them some relief from a state of tension which was becoming
+intolerable. Even then Fischer at first said nothing. He had risen
+noiselessly to his feet, his right hand was in the sidepocket of his
+coat, his eyes were fixed upon the table.
+
+"So this is why you insisted upon a valet!" James Van Teyl exclaimed,
+his voice thick with anger. "He's planted here to rob for you! Is that
+it, eh, Fischer?"
+
+Pamela drew the packet towards her and stood with her right palm
+covering it. Fischer seemed still at a loss for words.
+
+"I can assure you," he said at last fervently, "that if that packet was
+stolen from Miss Van Teyl by Nikasti, it was done without my
+instigation. It is as much a surprise to me as to any of you. We can
+congratulate ourselves that it is not on the way to Japan."
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"He is speaking the truth," she asserted. "Nikasti is not out to steal
+for others. He is playing the same game as all of us, only he is
+playing it for his own hand. Mr. Fischer has brought him here for some
+purpose of his own, without a doubt, but I am quite sure that Nikasti
+never meant to be any one's cat's-paw."
+
+"Believe me, that is the truth," Fischer agreed. "I will admit that I
+brought Nikasti here with a purpose, but upon my honour I swear that
+until this evening I never dreamed that he even knew of the existence
+of the formula."
+
+"Oh! we are not the only people in the world who are clever," Pamela
+declared, with an unnatural little laugh. "The first man who took note
+of Sandy Graham's silly words as he rushed into Henry's was Baron
+Sunyea. I saw him stiffen as he listened. He even uttered a word of
+remonstrance. Japan in London heard. Japan in your sitting-room here,
+in ten days' time, knew everything there was to be known."
+
+"I didn't bring Nikasti here for this," Fischer insisted.
+
+"Perhaps not," Pamela conceded, "but if you're a good American, what
+are you doing at all with a Japanese secret agent?"
+
+"If you trust me, you shall know," Fischer promised. "Listen to reason.
+Let us have finished with one affair at a time. You very nearly lost
+that formula to Japan. Hand over the pocketbook. You see how dangerous
+it is for it to remain in your possession. I'll keep my share of the
+bargain. I'll put my scheme before you. Come, be reasonable. See,
+here's the forged transfer."
+
+He drew a paper from his pocket and spread it out upon the table. His
+long, hairy fingers were shaking with nervousness.
+
+"Come, make it a deal," he persisted, "You can pay me the defalcations
+or not, as you choose. There is your brother's freedom and the honour
+of your name, in exchange for that pocketbook."
+
+Pamela, after all her hesitation, seemed to make up her mind with
+startling suddenness. She thrust the pocketbook towards Fischer, took
+the transfer from his fingers and tore it into small pieces.
+
+"I give in," she said. "This time you have scored. We will talk about
+the other matter tomorrow."
+
+Fischer buttoned up the packet carefully in his breast pocket. His eyes
+glittered. He turned towards the door. On the threshold he looked
+around. He stretched out his hand towards Pamela.
+
+"Believe me, you have done well," he assured her hoarsely. "I shall
+keep my word. I will set you in the path of great things."
+
+He left the room, and they heard the furious ringing of the lift bell.
+Pamela was tearing into smaller pieces the forged transfer. Van Teyl, a
+little pale, but with new life in his frame, was watching the fragments
+upon the floor. There was a tap at the door. Nikasti entered. Pamela's
+fingers paused in their task. Van Teyl stared at him. The newcomer was
+carrying the evening papers, which he laid down upon the table.
+
+"Is there anything more I can do before I go to bed, sir?" he asked,
+with his usual reverential little bow.
+
+"Aren't you hurt?" Van Teyl exclaimed.
+
+"Hurt?" Nikasti replied wonderingly. "Oh, no!"
+
+"Weren't you knocked down by a taxicab," Pamela asked, "outside the
+hotel?"
+
+Nikasti looked from one to the other with an air of gentle surprise.
+
+"I have been to my rooms in the servants' quarters," he told them, "on
+the upper floor. I have not been downstairs at all. I have been
+unpacking and arranging my own humble belongings."
+
+Van Teyl clasped his forehead.
+
+"Let me get this!" he exclaimed. "You haven't been down in the lobby of
+the hotel, you haven't been knocked down by a taxicab that skidded, you
+haven't lost a pocketbook which you had previously stolen from my
+sister?"
+
+Nikasti shook his head. He seemed completely mystified. He watched
+Pamela's face carefully.
+
+"Perhaps there has been some mistake," he suggested quietly. "My
+English is sometimes not very good. I would not dream of trying to rob
+the young lady. I have not lost any pocketbook. I have not descended
+lower down in the hotel than this floor."
+
+Van Teyl waved him away, accepted his farewell salutation, and waited
+until the door was closed.
+
+"Look here, Pamela," he protested, turning almost appealingly towards
+her, "my brain wasn't made for this sort of thing. What in thunder does
+it all mean?"
+
+Pamela looked at the fragments of paper upon the floor and sank back in
+an easy chair.
+
+"Jimmy," she confided, "I don't know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Pamela opened her eyes the next morning upon a distinctly pleasing
+sight. At the foot of her bed was an enormous basket of pink
+carnations. On the counterpane by her side lay a smaller cluster of
+twelve very beautiful dark red Gloire de Dijon roses. Attached to these
+latter was a note.
+
+"When did these flowers come, Leah?" Pamela asked the maid who was
+moving about the room.
+
+"An hour ago, madam," the girl told her.
+
+"Read the name on the card," Pamela directed, pointing to the mass of
+pink blossoms.
+
+"Mr. Oscar H. Fischer," the girl read out, "with respectful
+compliments."
+
+Pamela smiled.
+
+"He doesn't know, then," she murmured to herself. "Get my bath ready,
+Leah."
+
+The maid disappeared into the inner room. Pamela tore open the note
+attached to the roses by her side, and read it slowly through:
+
+Dear Miss Van Teyl,
+
+I am so very sorry, but the luncheon we had half-planned for to-day
+must be postponed. I have an urgent message to go south; to
+inspect--but no secrets! It's horribly disappointing. I hope we may
+meet in a few days.
+
+Sincerely yours,
+
+JOHN LUTCHESTER.
+
+Pamela laid down the note, conscious of an indefined but distinct
+sensation of disappointment. After all, it was not so wonderful to wake
+up and find oneself in New York. The sun was pleasant, the little puffs
+of air which came in through the window across the park, delightful and
+exhilarating, yet something had gone out of the day. Accustomed to
+self-analysis, she asked herself swiftly--what? It was, without a
+doubt, something to do with Lutchester's departure. She tried to face
+the question of her disappointment. Was it possible to feel any real
+interest in a man who preferred a Government post to the army at such a
+time, and who had brought his golf clubs out to America? Her
+imagination for a moment revolved around the problem of his apparently
+uninteresting and yet, in some respects, contradictory personality. Was
+it really her fancy or had she, every now and then, detected behind
+that flamboyant manner traces of something deeper and more serious,
+something which seemed to indicate a life and aims of which nothing
+appeared upon the surface? She clasped her knees and sat up in bed,
+listening to the sound of the running water in the next room. Was there
+any possible explanation of his opportune appearance on the night
+before with a dummy pocketbook and a concocted story? The cleverest man
+on earth could surely never have gauged her position with Fischer and
+intervened in such a manner at the psychological moment.
+
+Yet he had done it, she reflected, gazing thoughtfully at Fischer's
+gift. If, indeed, he knew what was passing around him to that extent,
+how much more knowledge might he not possess? She felt the little
+silken belt around her waist. At least there was no one who could take
+Sandy Graham's secret from her until she chose to give it up. Supposing
+for a moment that Lutchester was also out for the great things, was he
+fooled by her attitude? If he knew so much, he must know that the
+secret remained with her. Perhaps, after all, he was only a philanderer
+in intrigue....
+
+Pamela bathed and dressed, sent for her brother, and, to his horror,
+insisted upon an American breakfast.
+
+"It's quite time I came back to look after you, Jimmy," she said
+severely, as she watched him send away his grapefruit and gaze
+helplessly at his bacon and eggs. "You're going to turn over a new
+leaf, young man."
+
+"I shan't be sorry," he confessed fervently. "I tell you, Pamela, when
+you have a thing like this hanging over you, it's hell--some hell! You
+just want to drown your thoughts and keep going all the time."
+
+She nodded sagely.
+
+"Well, that's over now, Jimmy," she said, "and I meant you to listen to
+me. It's more than likely that Mr. Fischer may find out at any moment
+that the mysterious pocketbook, which came from heaven knows where, is
+a faked one. He may be horrid about it."
+
+"While we are on that," Van Teyl interrupted, "I couldn't sleep a wink
+last night for trying to imagine where on earth that fellow Lutchester
+came in, and what his game was."
+
+"I have a headache this morning, trying to puzzle out the same thing,"
+Pamela told him.
+
+"He seems such an ordinary sort of chap," Van Teyl continued
+thoughtfully. "Good sportsman, no doubt, and all that sort of thing,
+but the last fellow in the world to concoct a yarn, and if he did, what
+was his object?"
+
+"Jimmy," his sister begged, "let's quit. Of course, I know a little
+more than you do, but the little more that I do know only makes it more
+confusing. Now, to make it worse, he's gone away."
+
+"What, this morning?"
+
+"Gone away on his Government work," Pamela announced. "I had a note and
+some roses from him. Don't let's talk about it, Jimmy. I keep on
+getting new ideas, and it makes my brain whirl. I want to talk about
+you."
+
+"I'm a rotten lot to talk about," he sighed.
+
+She patted his hand.
+
+"You're nothing of the sort, dear, and you've got to remember now that
+you're out of the trouble. But listen. Hurry down to the office as
+early as you can and set about straightening things out, so that if Mr.
+Fischer tries to make trouble, he won't be able to do it. There's my
+cheque for eighty-nine thousand dollars I made out last night before I
+went to bed," she added, passing it over to him. "Just replace what
+stocks you're short of and get yourself out of the mess, and don't
+waste any time about it."
+
+His face glowed as he looked across the table.
+
+"You're the most wonderful sister, Pamela."
+
+"Nonsense!" she interrupted. "Nonsense! I ought not to have left you
+alone all this time, and, besides, I'm pretty sure he helped you into
+this trouble for his own ends. Anyway, we are all right now. I shall be
+in New York for a few days before I go to Washington. When I do go, you
+must see whether you can get leave and come with me."
+
+"That's bully," he declared. "I'll get leave, right enough. There's
+never been less doing in Wall Street. But say, Pamela, I don't seem to
+half understand what's going on. You've given up most of your friends,
+and you spend months away there in Europe in all sorts of corners. Now
+you come back and you seem mixed up in regular secret service work.
+Where do you come in, anyway? What are you going to Washington for?"
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Queer tastes, haven't I, Jimmy?"
+
+"Queer for a girl."
+
+"That's prejudice," she objected, shaking her head. "Nowadays there are
+few things a woman can't do. To tell you the truth, my new interest in
+life started three years ago, when Uncle Theodore found out that I was
+going to Rome for the winter."
+
+"So Uncle Theodore started it, did he?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"That's the worst of having an uncle in the Administration, isn't it?
+Well, of course, he gave me letters to every one in Rome, and I found
+out what he wanted quite easily, and without the inquiries going
+through the Embassy at all. Sometimes, as you can understand, that's a
+great advantage. I found it simply fascinating--the work, I mean--and
+after three or four more commissions--well, they recognised me at
+Washington. I have been to most of the capitals in Europe at different
+times, with small affairs to arrange at each, or information to get.
+Sometimes it's been just about commercial things. Since the war,
+though, of course, it's been more exciting than ever. If I were an
+Englishwoman instead of an American, I could tell them some things in
+London which they'd find pretty surprising. It's not my affair, though,
+and I keep what information I do pick up until it works in with
+something else for our own good. I knew quite well in Berlin, for
+instance, to speak of something you've heard of, that Henry's
+Restaurant in London was being used as a centre of espionage by the
+Germans. That is why I was on the lookout, the day I went there."
+
+"You mean the day that pocketbook was stolen that the whole world seems
+crazy about?" Van Teyl asked.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I believe it is perfectly true," she said, "that a young man called
+Graham has invented an entirely new explosive, the formula for which he
+brought to Henry's with him that day. It isn't only what happens when
+the shell explodes, but a sort of putrefaction sets in all round, and
+they say that everything within a mile dies. There were spies down even
+watching his experiments. There were spies following him up to London,
+there were spies in Henry's Restaurant when like a fool he gave the
+thing away. Fischer was the ringleader of this lot, and he meant having
+the formula from Graham that night. I don't want to bore you, Jimmy,
+but I got there first."
+
+"Bore me!" the young man repeated. "Why, it's like a modern Arabian
+Nights. I can't imagine you in the thick of this sort of thing,
+Pamela."
+
+"It's very easy to slip into the way of anything you like," she
+answered. "I knew exactly what they were going to do to Captain Graham,
+and I got there before them. When they searched him, the formula had
+gone. Fischer caught my steamer and worried me all the way over. He
+thought he had us in a corner last night, and then a miracle happened."
+
+"You mean that fellow Lutchester turning up?"
+
+"Yes, I mean that," Pamela admitted.
+
+"Say, didn't that Jap fellow get the pocketbook from your rooms at all,
+then?" Van Teyl asked. "I couldn't follow it all last night."
+
+"He searched my rooms," Pamela replied, "and failed to find it.
+Afterwards, when he and I were alone in your sitting-room, heaven knows
+what would have happened, but for the miraculous arrival of Mr.
+Lutchester, whom I had left behind in London, come to pay an evening
+call in the Hotel Plaza, New York!"
+
+Van Teyl shook his head slowly, got up from his seat, lit a cigarette,
+and came back again.
+
+"Pam," he confessed, "my brain won't stand it. You're not going to tell
+me that Lutchester's in the game? Why, a simpler sort of fellow I never
+spoke to."
+
+"I can't make up my own mind about Mr. Lutchester," Pamela sighed. "He
+helped me in London on the night I sailed--in fact, he was very useful
+indeed--but why he invented that story about Nikasti, brought a dummy
+pocketbook into the room and helped us out of all our troubles, unless
+it was by sheer and brilliant instinct, I cannot imagine."
+
+"Let me get on to this," Van Teyl said. "Even the pocketbook was a
+fake, then?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I shouldn't be likely to leave things I risk my life for about my
+bedroom," she told him.
+
+"Where is it, then--the real thing?" he asked.
+
+She smiled.
+
+"If you must know, Jimmy," she confided, dropping her voice, "it's in a
+little compartment of a silk belt around my waist. It will remain there
+until I get to Washington, or until Mr. Haskall comes to me."
+
+"Haskall, the Government explosives man?"
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"Even he won't get it without Government authority."
+
+"Now, tell me, Pamela," Van Teyl went on--"you're a far-seeing girl--I
+suppose we should get it in the neck from Germany some day or other, if
+the Germans won? Why don't you hand the formula over to the British,
+and give them a chance to get ahead?"
+
+"That's a sensible question, Jimmy, and I'll try to answer it," Pamela
+promised. "Because when once the shells are made and used, the secret
+will be gone. I think it very likely that it would enable England to
+win the war; but, you see, I am an American, not English, and I'm all
+American. I have been in touch with things pretty closely for some time
+now, and I see trouble ahead for us before very long. I can't exactly
+tell you where it's coming from, but I feel it. I want America to have
+something up her sleeve, that's why."
+
+"You're a great girl, Pamela," her brother declared. "I'm off downtown,
+feeling a different man. And, Pamela, I haven't said much, but God
+bless you, and as long as I live I'm going as straight as a die. I've
+had my lesson."
+
+He bent over her a little clumsily and kissed her. Pamela walked to the
+door with him.
+
+"Be a dear," she called out, "and come back early. And, Jimmy!" ...
+
+"Hullo?'"
+
+"Put things right at the office at once," she whispered with emphasis.
+"Fischer hasn't found out yet. I sent him a message this morning,
+thanking him for the carnations, and asking him to walk with me in the
+park after breakfast, I shall keep him away till lunch time, at least."
+
+The young man looked at her, and at Nikasti, who out in the corridor
+was holding his hat and cane. Then he chuckled.
+
+"And they say that things don't happen in New York!" he murmured, as he
+turned away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+An elderly New Yorker, a man of fashion, renowned for his social
+perceptions, pressed his companion's arm at the entrance to Central
+Park and pointed to Pamela.
+
+"There goes a typical New York girl," he said, "and the best-looking
+I've seen for many a long day. You can go all round Europe, Freddie,
+and not see a girl with a face and figure like that. She had that frank
+way, too, of looking you in the eyes."
+
+"I know," the other assented. "Gibson's girls all had it. Kind of look
+which seems to say--'I know you find me nice and I don't mind. I wonder
+whether you're nice, too.'"
+
+Pamela strolled along the park with Fischer by her side. She wore a
+tailor-made costume of black and white tweed, and a smart hat, in which
+yellow seemed the predominating colour. Her shoes, her gloves, the
+little tie about her throat, were all the last word in the simple
+elegance of suitability. Fischer walked by her side--a powerful,
+determined figure in a carefully-pressed blue serge suit and a brown
+Homburg hat. He wore a rose in his buttonhole, and he carried a
+cane--both unusual circumstances. After fifty years of strenuous
+living, Mr. Fischer seemed suddenly to have found a new thing in the
+world.
+
+"This is a pleasant idea of yours, Miss Van Teyl," he said.
+
+"I haven't disturbed your morning, I hope?" she asked.
+
+"I guess, if you have, it isn't the way you mean," he replied. "You've
+disturbed a good deal of my time and thoughts lately."
+
+"Well, you've had your own way now," she sighed, looking at him out of
+the corner of her eyes. "I suppose you always get your own way in the
+end, don't you, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Generally," he admitted. "I tell you, though, Miss Van Teyl," he went
+on earnestly, "if you're alluding to last night's affair, I hated the
+whole business. It was my duty, and the opportunity was there, but with
+what I have I am satisfied. With reference to that little debt of your
+brother's--"
+
+"Please don't say a word, Mr. Fischer," she interrupted. "You will find
+that all put right as soon as you get down to Wall Street. Tell me,
+what have you done with your prize?"
+
+Mr. Fischer looked very humble.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl," he said, "for certain reasons I am going to tell you
+the truth. Perhaps it will be the best in the long run. We may even
+before long be working together. So I start by being honest with you.
+The pocketbook is by now on its way to Germany."
+
+"To Germany?" she exclaimed. "And after all your promises!"
+
+"Ah, but think, Miss Van Teyl," he pleaded. "I throw aside all
+subterfuge. In your heart you know well what I am and what I stand for.
+I deny it no longer. I am a German-American, working for Germany,
+simply because America does not need my help. If America were at war
+with any country in the world, my brains, my knowledge, my wealth would
+be hers. But now it is different. Germany is surrounded by many
+enemies, and she calls for her sons all over the world to remember the
+Fatherland. You can sympathise a little with my unfortunate country,
+Miss Van Teyl, and yet remain a good American. You are not angry with
+me?"
+
+"I suppose I ought to be, but I am not in the least," she assured him.
+"I never had any doubt as to the destination of that packet."
+
+"That," he admitted, "is a relief to me. Let us wipe the matter from
+our memories, Miss Van Teyl."
+
+"One word," she begged, "and that only of curiosity. Did you examine
+the contents of the pocketbook?"
+
+He turned his head and looked at her. For a moment he had lost the
+greater spontaneity of his new self. He was again the cold, calculating
+machine.
+
+"No," he answered, "except to take out and destroy what seemed to be a
+few private memoranda. There was a bill for flowers, a note from a
+young lady--some rubbish of that sort. The remaining papers were all
+calculations and figures, chemical formulae."
+
+"Are you a chemist, Mr. Fischer?" she inquired.
+
+"Not in the least," he acknowledged. "I recognised just enough of the
+formulae on the last page to realise that there were entirely new
+elements being dealt with."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I only asked out of curiosity. I agree. Let us put it out of our
+thoughts. You see, I am generous. We have fought a battle, you and I,
+and I have lost. Yet we remain friends."
+
+"It is more than your friendship that I want, Miss Van Teyl," he
+pleaded, his voice shaking a little. "I am years older than you, I
+know, and, by your standards, I fear unattractive. But you love power,
+and I have it. I will take you into my schemes. I will show you how
+those live who stand behind the clouds and wield the thunders."
+
+She looked at him with genuine surprise. It was necessary to readjust
+some of her impressions of him. Oscar Fischer was, after all, a human
+being.
+
+"What you say is all very well so far as it goes," she told him. "I
+admit that a life of scheming and adventure attracts me. I love power.
+I can think of nothing more wonderful than to feel the machinery of the
+world--the political world--roar or die away, according to the touch of
+one's fingers. Oh, yes, we're alike so far as that is concerned! But
+there is a very vital difference. You are only an American by accident.
+I am one by descent. For me there doesn't exist any other country. For
+you Germany comes first."
+
+"But can't you realise," he went on eagerly, "that even this is for the
+best? America to-day is hypnotised by a maudlin, sentimental affection
+for England, a country from whom she never received anything but harm.
+We want to change that. We want to kill for ever the misunderstandings
+between the two greatest nations in the world. My creed of life could
+be yours, too, without a single lapse from your patriotism. Friendship,
+alliance, brotherhood, between Germany and America. That would be my
+text."
+
+"Shall I be perfectly frank?" Pamela asked.
+
+"Nothing else is worth while," was the instant answer.
+
+"Well, then," she continued, "I can quite see that Germany has
+everything to gain from America's friendship, but I cannot see the quid
+pro quo."
+
+"And yet it is so clear," Fischer insisted. "Your own cloud may not be
+very large just now, but it is growing, and, before you know it, it
+will be upon you. Can you not realise why Japan is keeping out of this
+war? She is conserving her strength. Millions flow into her coffers
+week by week. In a few years time, Japan, for the first time in her
+history, will know what it is to possess solid wealth. What does she
+want it for, do you think? She has no dreams of European aggression, or
+her soldiers would be fighting there now. China is hers for the taking,
+a rich prize ready to fall into her mouth at any moment. But the end
+and aim of all Japanese policy, the secret Mecca of her desires, is to
+repay with the sword the insults your country has heaped upon her. It
+is for that, believe me, that her arsenals are working night and day,
+her soldiers are training, her fleet is in reserve. While you haggle
+about a few volunteers, Japan is strengthening and perfecting a mighty
+army for one purpose and one purpose only. Unless you wake up, you will
+be in the position that Great Britain was in two years ago. Even now,
+work though you may, you will never wholly make up for lost time. The
+one chance for you is friendship with Germany."
+
+"Will Germany be in a position to help us after the war?" Pamela asked.
+
+"Never doubt it," Fischer replied vehemently. "Before peace is signed
+the sea power of England will be broken. Financially she will be
+ruined. She is a country without economic science, without foresight,
+without statesmen. The days of her golden opportunities have passed,
+frittered away. Unless we of our great pity bind up her wounds, England
+will bleed to death before the war is over."
+
+"That, you must remember," Pamela said practically, "is your point of
+view."
+
+"I could tell you things--" he began.
+
+"Don't," she begged. "I know what your outlook is now. Be definite.
+Leaving aside that other matter, what is your proposition to me?"
+
+Fischer walked for a while in silence. They had turned back some time
+since, and were once more nearing the Plaza.
+
+"You ask me to leave out what is most vital," he said at last. "I have
+never been married, Miss Van Teyl. I am wealthy. I am promised great
+honours at the end of this war. When that comes, I shall rest. If
+you will be my wife, you can choose your home, you can choose your
+title."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"But I am not sure that I even like you, Mr. Fischer," she objected.
+"We have fought in opposite camps, and you have had the bad taste to be
+victorious. Besides which, you were perfectly brutal to James, and I am
+not at all sure that I don't resent your bargain with me. As a matter
+of fact, I am feeling very bitter towards you."
+
+"You should not," he remonstrated earnestly. "Remember that, after all,
+women are only dabblers in diplomacy. Their very physique prevents them
+from playing the final game. You have brains, of course, but there are
+other things--experience, courage, resource. You would be a wonderful
+helpmate, Miss Van Teyl, even if your individual and unaided efforts
+have not been entirely successful."
+
+She sighed. Pamela just then was a picture of engaging humility.
+
+"It is so hard for me," she murmured, "I do not want to marry yet. I do
+not wish to think of it. And so far as you are concerned, Mr.
+Fischer--well, I am simply furious when I think of your attitude last
+night. But I love adventures."
+
+"I will promise you all the adventures that can be crammed into your
+life," he urged.
+
+"But be more definite," she persisted. "Where should we start? You are
+over here now on some important mission. Tell me more about it?"
+
+"I cannot just yet," he answered. "All that I can promise you is that,
+if I am successful, it will stop the war just as surely as Captain Graham's
+new explosive."
+
+"I thought you were going to make a confidante of me," she complained.
+
+He suddenly gripped her arm. It was the first time he had touched her,
+and she felt a queer surging of the blood to her head, a sudden and
+almost uncontrollable repulsion. The touch of his long fingers was like
+flame; his eyes, behind their sheltering spectacles, glowed in a
+curious, disconcerting fashion.
+
+"To the woman who was my pledged wife," he said, "I would tell
+everything. From the woman who gave me her hand and became my ally I
+would have no secrets. Come, I have a message, more than a message, to
+the American people. I am taking it to Washington before many hours
+have passed. If it is your will, it should be you to whom I will
+deliver it."
+
+Pamela walked on with her head in the air. Fischer was leaning a little
+towards her. Every now and then his mouth twitched slightly. His eyes
+seemed to be seeking to reach the back of her brain.
+
+"Please go now," she begged. "I can't think clearly while you are here,
+and I want to make up my mind. I will send to you when I am ready."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Pamela sat that afternoon on the balcony of the country club at
+Baltusrol and approved of her surroundings. Below her stretched a
+pleasant vista of rolling greensward, dotted here and there with the
+figures of the golfers. Beyond, the misty blue background of rising
+hills.
+
+"I can't tell you how peaceful this all seems, Jimmy," she said to her
+brother, who had brought her out in his automobile. "One doesn't notice
+the air of strain over on the Continent, because it's the same
+everywhere, but it gets a little on one's nerves, all the same. I
+positively love it here."
+
+"It's fine to have you," was the hearty response. "Gee, that fellow
+coming to the sixteenth hole can play some!"
+
+Pamela directed her attention idly towards the figure which her brother
+indicated--a man in light tweeds, who played with an easy and graceful
+swing, and with the air of one to whom the game presented no
+difficulties whatever. She watched him drive for the seventeenth--a
+long, raking ball, fully fifty yards further than his opponent's--
+watched him play a perfect mashie shot to the green and hole out in
+three.
+
+"A birdie," James Van Teyl murmured. "I say, Pamela!"
+
+She took no notice. Her eyes were still following the figure of the
+golfer. She watched him drive at the last hole, play a chip shot on to
+the green, and hit the hole for a three. The frown deepened upon her
+forehead. She was looking very uncompromising when the two men ascended
+the steps.
+
+"I didn't know, Mr. Lutchester, that there were any factories down this
+way," she remarked severely, as he paused before her in surprise.
+
+For a single moment she fancied that she saw a flash of annoyance in
+his eyes. It was gone so swiftly, however, that she remained uncertain.
+He held out his hand, laughing.
+
+"Fairly caught out, Miss Van Teyl," he confessed. "You see, I was
+tempted, and I fell."
+
+His companion, an elderly, clean-shaven man, passed on. Pamela glanced
+after him.
+
+"Who is your opponent?" she asked.
+
+"Just some one I picked up on the tee," Lutchester explained. "How is
+our friend Fischer this morning?"
+
+"I walked with him for an hour in the Park," Pamela replied. "He seemed
+quite cheerful. I have scarcely thanked you yet for returning the
+pocketbook, have I?"
+
+His face was inscrutable.
+
+"Couldn't keep a thing that didn't belong to me, could I?" he observed.
+
+"You have a marvellous gift for discovering lost property," she
+murmured.
+
+"For discovering the owners, you mean," he retorted, with a little bow.
+
+"You're some golfer, I see, Mr. Lutchester," Van Teyl interposed.
+
+"I was on my game to-day," Lutchester admitted. "With a little luck at
+the seventh," he continued earnestly, "I might have tied the amateur
+record. You see, my ball--but there, I mustn't bore you now. I must
+look after my opponent and stand him a drink. We shall meet again, I
+daresay."
+
+Lutchester passed on, and Pamela glanced up at her brother.
+
+"Is he a sphinx or a fool?" she whispered.
+
+"Don't ask me," Van Teyl replied. "Seems to me you were a bit rough on
+him, anyway. I don't see why the fellow shouldn't have a day's holiday
+before he gets to work. If I had his swing, it would interfere with my
+career, I know that, well enough."
+
+"Did you recognise the man with whom he was playing?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"Can't say that I did. His face seems familiar, too."
+
+"Go and see if you can find out his name," Pamela begged. "It isn't
+ordinary curiosity. I really want to know."
+
+"That's easy enough," Van Teyl replied, rising from his place. "And
+I'll order tea at the same time."
+
+Pamela leaned a little further back in her chair. Her eyes seemed to be
+fixed upon the pleasant prospect of wooded slopes and green,
+upward-stretching sward. As a matter of fact, she saw only two faces--
+Fischer's and Lutchester's. Her chief impulse in life for the immediate
+present seemed to have resolved itself into a fierce, almost a
+passionate curiosity. It was the riddle of those two brains which she
+was so anxious to solve. ... Fischer, the cold, subtle intriguer, with
+schemes at the back of his mind which she knew quite well that, even in
+the moment of his weakness, he intended to keep to himself; and
+Lutchester, with his almost cynical devotion to pleasure, yet with his
+unaccountable habit of suggesting a strength and qualities to which he
+neither laid nor established any claim. Of the two men it was
+Lutchester who piqued her, with whom she would have found more pleasure
+in the battle of wits. She found herself alternately furious and
+puzzled with him, yet her uneasiness concerning him possessed more
+disquieting, more fascinating possibilities than any of the emotions
+inspired by the other man.
+
+Van Teyl returned to her presently, a little impressed.
+
+"Thought I knew that chap's face," he observed. "It's Eli Hamblin--
+Senator Hamblin, you know."
+
+"A friend and confidant of the President," she murmured. "A Westerner,
+too. I wonder what he's doing here ... Jimmy!"
+
+"Hallo, Sis?"
+
+"You've just got to be a dear," Pamela begged. "Go to the caddy master,
+or professional, or some one, and find out whether Mr. Lutchester met
+him here by accident or whether they arrived together."
+
+"You'll turn me into a regular sleuthhound," he laughed. "However, here
+goes."
+
+He strolled off again, and Pamela found herself forced to become
+mundane and frivolous whilst she chatted with some newly-arrived
+acquaintances. It was not until some little time after her brother's
+return that she found herself alone with him.
+
+"Well?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"They arrived within a few minutes of one another," Van Teyl announced.
+"Senator Hamblin bought a couple of new balls and made some inquiries
+about the course, but said nothing about playing. Lutchester, who
+appears not to have known him, came up later and asked him if he'd like
+a game. That's all I could find out."
+
+Pamela pointed to a little cloud of dust in the distance.
+
+"And there they go," she observed, "together."
+
+Van Teyl threw himself into a chair and accepted the cup of tea which
+his sister handed him.
+
+"Well," he inquired, "what do you make of it?"
+
+"There's more in that question than you think, James," Pamela replied.
+"All the same, I think I shall be able to answer it in a few days."
+
+Another little crowd of acquaintances discovered them, and Pamela was
+soon surrounded by a fresh group of admirers. They all went out
+presently to inspect the new tennis courts. Pamela and her brother were
+beset with invitations.
+
+"You positively must stay down and dine with us, and go home by
+moonlight," Mrs. Saunders, a lively young matron with a large country
+house close by, insisted. "Jimmy's neglected me terribly these last few
+months, and as for you, Pamela, I haven't seen you for a year."
+
+"I'd love to if we can," Pamela assured her, "but Jimmy will have to
+telephone first."
+
+"Then do be quick about it," Mrs. Saunders begged, "It doesn't matter a
+bit about clothes. We've twenty people staying in the house now, and
+half of us won't change, if that makes you more comfortable. Jimmy, if
+you fail at that telephone I'll never forgive you."
+
+But Van Teyl, who had caught the little motion of his sister's head
+towards the city, proved equal to the occasion. He returned presently,
+driving the car.
+
+"Got to go," he announced as he made his farewells. "Can't be helped,
+Pamela. Frightfully sorry, Mrs. Saunders, we are wanted up in New
+York."
+
+Pamela sighed.
+
+"I was so afraid of it," she regretted as she waved her adieux. . . . .
+
+An hour or so later the city broke before them in murky waves. Pamela,
+who had been leaning back in the car, deep in thought, sat up.
+
+"You are a perfect dear, James," she said. "Do you think you could
+stand having Mr. Fischer to dinner one evening this week?"
+
+"Sure!" he replied, a little curiously. "If you want to keep friends
+with him for any reason, I don't bear him any ill-will."
+
+"I just want to talk to him," Pamela murmured, "that's all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+There was a ripple of interest and a good deal of curiosity that
+afternoon, in the lounge and entrance hall of the Hotel Plaza, when a
+tall, grey-moustached gentleman of military bearing descended from the
+automobile which had brought him from the station, and handed in his
+name at the desk, inquiring for Mr. Fischer.
+
+"Will you send my name up--the Baron von Schwerin," he directed.
+
+The clerk, who had recognised the newcomer, took him under his personal
+care.
+
+"Mr. Fischer is up in his rooms, expecting you, Baron," he announced.
+"If you'll come this way, I'll take you up."
+
+The Baron followed his guide to the lift and along the corridor to the
+suite of rooms occupied by Mr. Fischer and his young friend, James Van
+Teyl. Mr. Fischer himself opened the door. The two men clasped hands
+cordially, and the clerk discreetly withdrew.
+
+"Back with us once more, Fischer," Von Schwerin exclaimed fervently.
+"You are wonderful. Tell me," he added, looking around, "we are to be
+alone here?"
+
+"Absolutely," Fischer replied. "The young man I share these apartments
+with--James Van Teyl--has taken his sister out to Baltusrol. They will
+not be back until seven o'clock. We are sure of solitude."
+
+"Good!" Von Schwerin exclaimed. "And you have news--I can see it in
+your face."
+
+Fischer rolled up easy chairs and produced a box of cigars.
+
+"Yes," he assented, with a little glitter in his eyes, "I have news.
+Things have moved with me. I think that, with the help of an idiotic
+Englishman, we shall solve the riddle of what our professors have
+called the consuming explosive. I sent the formula home to Germany, by
+a trusty hand, only a few hours ago."
+
+"Capital!" Von Schwerin declared. "It was arranged in London, that?"
+
+"Partly in London and partly here," Fischer replied.
+
+Von Schwerin made a grimace.
+
+"If you can find those who are willing to help you here, you are
+fortunate indeed," he sighed. "My life's work has lain amongst these
+people. In the days of peace, all seemed favourable to us. Since the
+war, even those people whom I thought my friends seem to have lost
+their heads, to have lost their reasoning powers."
+
+"After all," Fischer muttered, "it is race calling to race. But come,
+we have more direct business on hand. Nikasti is here."
+
+Von Schwerin nodded a little gloomily.
+
+"Washington knows nothing of his coming," he observed. "I attended the
+Baron Yung's reception last week, informally. I threw out very broad
+hints, but Yung would not be drawn. Nikasti represents the Secret
+Service of Japan, unofficially and without responsibility."
+
+"Nevertheless," Fischer pointed out, "what he says will reach the ear
+of his country, and reach it quickly. You've gone through the papers I
+sent you?"
+
+"Carefully," Von Schwerin replied. "And the autograph letter?"
+
+"That I have," Fischer announced. "I will fetch Nikasti."
+
+He crossed the room and opened the door leading into the bedchambers.
+
+"Are you there, Kato?" he cried.
+
+"I am coming, sir," was the instant reply.
+
+Nikasti appeared, a few moments later. He was carrying a dress coat on
+his arm, and he held a clothes brush in his hand. It was obvious that
+he had studied with nice care the details of his new part.
+
+"You can sit down, Nikasti," Fischer invited. "This is the Baron von
+Schwerin. He has something to say to you."
+
+Nikasti bowed very low. He declined the chair, however, to which
+Fischer pointed.
+
+"I am your valet and the valet of Mr. Van Teyl," he murmured. "It is
+not fitting for me to be seated. I listen."
+
+Von Schwerin drew his chair a little nearer.
+
+"I plunge at once," he said, "into the middle of things. There is
+always the fear that we may be disturbed."
+
+Nikasti inclined his head.
+
+"It is best," he agreed.
+
+"You are aware," Von Schwerin continued, "that the Imperial Government
+of Germany has already made formal overtures, through a third party, to
+the Emperor of Japan with reference to an alteration in our relations?"
+
+"There was talk of this in Tokio," Nikasti observed softly. "Japan,
+however, is under obligations--treaty obligations. Her honour demands
+that these should be kept."
+
+"The honour of a country," Baron von Schwerin acknowledged, "is,
+without doubt, a sacred charge upon her rulers, but above all things in
+heaven or on earth, the interests of her people must be their first
+consideration. If a time should come when the two might seem to clash,
+then it is the task of the statesman to recognise this fact."
+
+Nikasti bowed.
+
+"It is spoken," he confessed, "like a great man."
+
+"Your country," Von Schwerin continued, "is at war with mine because it
+seemed to her rulers that her interests lay with the Allies rather than
+with Germany. I will admit that my country was at fault. We did not
+recognise to its full extent the value of friendship with Japan. We did
+not bid high enough for your favours. Asia concerned us very little. We
+looked upon the destruction of our interests there in the same spirit
+as that with which we contemplated the loss of our colonies. All that
+might happen would be temporary. Our influence in Asia, our colonies,
+will remain with us or perish, according to the result of the war in
+Europe. But our statesmen overlooked one thing."
+
+"Our factories," Nikasti murmured.
+
+"Precisely! We have had our agents all over the world for years. Some
+are good, a few are easily deceived. There is no country in the world
+where apparently so much liberty is granted to foreigners as in Japan.
+There is no country where the capacity for manufacture and output has
+been so grossly underestimated by our agents, as yours."
+
+Nikasti smiled.
+
+"I had something to do with that," he announced. "It was Karl Neumann,
+was it not, on whom you relied? I supplied him with much information."
+
+Von Schwerin's face clouded for a moment.
+
+"You mean that you fooled him, I suppose," he said. "Well, it is all
+part of the game. That is over now. We want your exports to Russia
+stopped."
+
+"Ah!" Nikasti murmured reflectively. "Stopped!"
+
+"We ask no favours," Von Schwerin continued. "The issue of the war is
+written across the face of the skies for those who care to read."
+
+Nikasti looked downwards at the dress coat which he was carrying. Then
+he glanced up at Von Schwerin.
+
+"Perhaps our eyes have been dazzled," he said. "Will you not
+interpret?"
+
+"The end of the war will be a peace of exhaustion," Von Schwerin
+explained. "Our loftier dreams of conquest we must abandon. Germany has
+played her part, but Austria, alas! has failed. Peace will leave us all
+very much where we were. Very well, then, I ask you, what has Japan
+gained? You answer China? I deny it. Yet even if it were true, it will
+take you five hundred years to make a great country of China. Suppose
+for a moment you had been on the other side. What about Australia?...
+New Zealand?"
+
+"Are those things under present consideration?" Nikasti queried.
+
+"Why not?" Von Schwerin replied. "Listen. Close your exports to Russia
+within the next thirty days. Build up for yourselves a stock of
+ammunition, add to your fleet, and prepare. Within a year of the
+cessation of war, there is no reason why your national dream should not
+be realised. Your fleet may sail for San Francisco. The German fleet
+shall make a simultaneous attack upon the eastern coast of
+Massachusetts and New York."
+
+"The German fleet," Nikasti repeated. "And England?"
+
+Von Schwerin's eyes flashed for a moment.
+
+"If the English fleet is still in being," he declared, "it will be a
+crippled and defeated fleet, but, for the sake of your point of view, I
+will assume that it exists. Even then there will be nothing to prevent
+the German fleet from steaming in what waters it pleases. If our shells
+fall upon New York on the day when your warships are sighted off the
+Californian coast, do you suppose that America could resist? With her
+seaboard, her fleet is contemptible. For her wealth, her army is a
+farce. She has neglected for a great many years to pay her national
+insurance. She is the one country in the world who can be bled for the
+price of empires."
+
+Fischer, who had been smoking furiously, spat out the end of a fresh
+cigar.
+
+"It will be a just retribution," he interposed, with smothered
+fierceness. "Under the guise of neutrality, America has been
+responsible for the lives of hundreds of thousands of my countrymen.
+That we never can, we never shall, forget. The wealth which makes these
+people fat is blood-money, and Germany will take her vengeance."
+
+"For whom do you speak?" Nikasti inquired.
+
+Von Schwerin rose from his place.
+
+"For the greatest of all."
+
+"Do I take anything but words to Tokio?" the Japanese asked softly.
+
+Fischer unfolded a pocketbook and drew from it a parchment envelope.
+
+"You take this letter," he said, "which I brought over myself from
+Berlin, signed and written not more than three weeks ago. I ask you to
+believe in no vague promises. I bring you the pledged faith of the
+greatest ruler on earth. What do you say, Nikasti? Will you accept our
+mission? Will you go back to Tokio and see the Emperor?"
+
+Nikasti bowed.
+
+"I will go back," he promised. "I will sail as soon as I can make
+arrangements. But I cannot tell you what the issue may be. We Japanese
+are not a self-seeking nation. Above and higher than all things are our
+ideals and our honour. I cannot tell what answer our Sovereign may give
+to this."
+
+"These are the days when the truest patriotism demands the most sublime
+sacrifices," Von Schwerin declared. "Above all the ethics of
+individuals comes the supreme necessity of self-preservation."
+
+The Japanese smiled slightly.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "there speaks the philosophy of your country, Baron, the
+paean of materialism."
+
+"The destinies of nations," Baron von Schwerin exclaimed, "are above
+the man-made laws of a sentimental religion! One needs, nowadays, more
+than to survive. It is necessary to flourish."
+
+Nikasti stood suddenly to attention.
+
+"It is Mr. Van Teyl who returns," he warned them.
+
+He glided from the room, shaking out a little the dress coat which he
+had been carrying. The two men looked after him. Fischer threw his
+cigar savagely away and lit another.
+
+"Curse these orientals!" he muttered. "They listen and listen, and one
+never knows. Van Teyl won't be here for hours. That was just an excuse
+to get away."
+
+But there was a smile of triumph on Von Schwerin's lips.
+
+"I know them better than you do, Fischer," he declared. "Nikasti is our
+man!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+High up in one of the topmost chambers of the Hotel Plaza, Nikasti,
+after his conference with Von Schwerin and Fischer, sought solitude. He
+opened the high windows, out of which he could scarcely see, dragged up
+a chest of drawers and perched himself, Oriental fashion, on the top,
+his long yellow fingers intertwined around his knees, his soft brown
+eyes gazing over the wooded slopes of the Park. He was away from the
+clamour of tongues, from the poisoned clouds of sophistry, even from
+the disturbance of his own thoughts, incited by specious arguments to
+some form of reciprocity. Here he sat in the clouds and searched for
+the true things. His eyes seemed to be travelling over the battlefields
+of Europe. He saw the swaying fortunes of mighty armies, he looked into
+council chambers, he seemed to feel the pulses of the great world force
+which kept going this most amazing Juggernaut. He saw the furnaces of
+Japan, blazing by night and day; saw the forms of hundreds of thousands
+of his fellow creatures bent to their task; saw the streams of ships
+leaving his ports, laden down with stores; saw the great guns speeding
+across Siberia, the endless trains of ammunition, the rifles, food for
+the famine-stricken giants who beat upon the air with empty fists. He
+saw the gold come streaming back. He saw it poured into the banks, the
+pockets of the merchants, the homes of his people. He saw brightening
+days throughout the land. He saw the slow but splendid strength of the
+nation rejoicing in its new possibilities. And beyond that, what?
+Wealth was the great means towards the great end, but if the great end
+were once lost sight of, there was no more hideous poison than that
+stream of enervating prosperity. He remembered his own diatribes
+concerning the decadence of England; how he had pointed to the gold
+poison, to the easy living of the poor, the blatant luxury of the rich.
+He had pointed to the soft limbs, the cities which had become pools of
+sensuality, to the daily life which, calling for no effort, had seen
+the passing of the spirit and the triumph of the gross. And what about
+his own people? Mankind was the same the world over. The gold which was
+bringing strength and life to the nation might very soon exude the same
+poisonous fumes, might very soon be laying its thrall upon a people to
+whom living had become an easier thing. However it might be for other,
+the Western nations, for his own he firmly believed that war alone,
+with its thousand privations, its call to the chivalry of his people,
+was the one great safeguard. China! The days had gone by when the
+taking of China could inspire. It was to greater things they must look.
+Australia. New Zealand! Had any Western race the right to flaunt her
+Empire's flag in Asiatic seas? And America! Once again he felt the slow
+rising of wrath as he recalled the insults of past years ... the
+adventurous sons of his country treated like savages and negroes by
+that uncultured, strong-limbed race of coarse-fibered, unimaginative
+materialists. There was a call, indeed, to the soul of his country to
+avenge, to make safe, the homes and lives of her colonists. Across the
+seas he looked into the council chambers of the wise men of his race.
+He saw the men whose word would tell. He watched their faces turned
+towards him, waiting; heard the beginning of the conflict of thoughts
+and minds--blind fidelity to the cause which they had espoused, or a
+rougher, more splendid, more selfish stroke for the greatness of Japan
+and Japan only. "If we break our faith we lose our honour," one
+murmured. "There is no honour save the care of my people," he heard one
+of his greatest countrymen reply.
+
+So he sat and thought, revolved in his mind arguments, morals,
+philosophy. It was the problem which had confronted the great Emperor,
+his own ancestor, who had lived for three months on the floor of the
+Temple, asking but one question of the Silent Powers: "Through what
+gate shall I lead my nation to greatness?"
+
+The senses of the man who crouched in his curious attitude, with his
+eyes still piercing the heavens, were mobile and extraordinary things.
+No disturbing sounds had reached him from outside. His isolation seemed
+complete and impregnable. Yet, without turning his head, he was
+perfectly conscious of the slow opening of the door. His whole frame
+stiffened. He was conscious for one bitter second of a lapse from the
+careful guarding of his ways. That second passed, however, and left him
+prepared even for danger, his brain and muscles alike tense. He turned
+his head. The expression of slow surprise, which even parted his lips
+and narrowed his eyes, was only half assumed.
+
+"What do you wish?" he asked.
+
+Lutchester did not for a moment reply. He had closed the door behind
+him carefully, and was looking around the room now with evident
+interest. Its bareness of furniture and decoration were noteworthy, but
+on the top of the ugly chest of drawers was a great bowl of roses, a
+queer little ivory figure set in an arched frame of copper--a figure
+almost sacerdotal, with its face turned towards the east--and a little
+shower of rose leaves, which could scarcely have fallen there by
+accident, at the foot of the pedestal. Lutchester inclined his head
+gravely, as he looked towards it, a gesture entirely reverential,
+almost an obeisance. Nikasti's eyes were clouded with curiosity. He
+slipped down to the ground.
+
+"I have travelled in your country," Lutchester said gravely, as though
+in explanation. "I have visited your temples. I may say that I have
+prayed there."
+
+"And now?" Nikasti asked.
+
+"I am for my country what you are for yours," Lutchester proceeded.
+"You see, I know when it is best to speak the truth. I am in New York
+because you are in New York, and if you leave on Saturday for Japan it
+may happen--of this I am not sure--but I say that it may happen that I
+shall accompany you."
+
+"I shall be much honoured," Nikasti murmured.
+
+"You came here," Lutchester continued, "to meet an emissary from
+Berlin. Your country, which could listen to no official word from any
+one of her official enemies, can yet, through you, learn what is in
+their minds. You have seen to-day Fischer and the Baron von Schwerin.
+Fischer has probably presented to you the letter which he has brought
+from Berlin. Von Schwerin has expounded further the proposition and the
+price which form part of his offer."
+
+Nikasti's face was imperturbable, but there was trouble in his eyes.
+
+"You have found your way to much knowledge,", he muttered.
+
+"I must find my way to more. I must know what Germany offers you. I
+must know what is at the back of your mind when you repeat this offer
+in Tokio."
+
+"You can make, then, the unwilling speak?" Nikasti demanded.
+
+"Even that is amongst the possibilities," Lutchester affirmed. "Strange
+things have been done for the cause which such as you and I revere."
+
+Nikasti showed his white teeth for a moment in a smile meant to be
+contemptuous.
+
+"It is a great riddle, this, which we toss from one to the other," he
+observed. "I am the simple valet of two gentlemen living in the hotel.
+You have listened, perhaps, to fairy tales, or dreamed them yourself,
+sir."
+
+"It is no fairy tale," Lutchester rejoined, "that you are Prince
+Nikasti, the third son of the great Marquis Ato, that you and I met
+more than once in London when you were living there some years ago;
+that you travelled through our country, and drew up so scathing an
+indictment of our domestic and industrial position that, but for their
+clumsy diplomacy, your country would probably have made overtures to
+Germany. Ever since those days I have wondered about you. I have
+wondered whether you are with your country in her friendship towards
+England."
+
+"I have no friends but my country's friends," Nikasti declared, "no
+enemies save her enemies. But to-day those things of which you have
+spoken do not concern me. I am the Japanese valet of Mr. Fischer and
+Mr. Van Teyl."
+
+Lutchester, as though by accident, came a step further into the room.
+Nikasti's eyes never left his face. Perhaps at that moment each knew
+the other's purpose, though their tongues clung to the other things.
+
+"Will you talk to me, Japan?" Lutchester asked calmly. "You have
+listened to Germany. I am England."
+
+"If you have anything to say," Nikasti replied, "Baron Yung is at
+Washington."
+
+"You and I know well," Lutchester continued, "that ambassadors are but
+the figureheads in the world's history. Speak to me of the things which
+concern our nations, Nikasti. Tell me of the letter you bear to the
+Emperor. You have nothing to lose. Sit down and talk to me, man to man.
+You have heard Germany. Hear England. Tell me of the promises made to
+you within the last hour, and I will show you how they can never be
+kept. Let us talk of your country's future. You and I can tell one
+another much."
+
+"A valet knows nothing," Nikasti murmured.
+
+Lutchester came a step nearer. Nikasti, in retreating, was now almost
+in a corner of the room.
+
+"Listen," Lutchester went on, "for many years I have suspected that you
+are an enemy of my country. That is the reason why, when our
+Intelligence Department learnt of your mission, I chose to come myself
+to meet you. And now we meet, Nikasti, face to face, and all that you
+are willing to do for your country, I am willing to do for mine, and
+unless you sit down and talk this matter out with me as man to man, you
+will not leave New York."
+
+The arm of the Japanese stole with the most perfect naturalness inside
+his coat, and Lutchester knew then that the die was cast. The line of
+blue steel flashed out too late. The hand which gripped the
+strangely-shaped little knife was held as though in a vice, and
+Lutchester's other arm was suddenly thrown around the neck of his
+assailant, his fingers pressed against his windpipe.
+
+"Drop the knife," he ordered.
+
+It fell clattering on to the hard floor. Nikasti, however, twisted
+himself almost free, took a flying leap sideways, and seized his
+adversary's leg. In another moment he came down upon the floor with a
+crash. Lutchester's grip upon him, a little crueller now, was like a
+band of steel.
+
+"There are many ways of playing this game. It is you who have chosen
+this one," he said. "It's no use, Nikasti. I know as much of your own
+science as you do. You're my man now until I choose to let you free,
+and before I do that I am going to read the letter which you are taking
+to Japan."
+
+Nikasti's eyes were red with fury, but every movement was torture.
+Lutchester held him easily with one hand, felt over him with the other,
+drew the letter from his vest, and, shaking it free from its envelope,
+held it out and read it. When he had finished, he replaced it in the
+envelope and pushed it back into the other's breast pocket.
+
+"Now," he directed, "you can get up."
+
+Nikasti scrambled to his feet. There were livid marks under his eyes.
+For a moment he had lost all his vitality, he was like a beaten
+creature.
+
+"You would never have done this," he muttered, "ten years ago, I grow
+old."
+
+"So that is the letter which you are taking to your Emperor!"
+Lutchester said. "You think it worth while! You can really see the
+German fleet steaming past the British Isles, out into the Atlantic,
+and bombarding New York!"
+
+Nikasti made no reply. Lutchester looked at him for a moment
+thoughtfully. There was a light once more in the beaten man's eyes--a
+queer, secretive gleam. Lutchester stooped down and picked up the knife
+from the floor.
+
+"Nikasti," he enjoined, "listen to me, for your country's sake. The
+promise contained in that letter is barely worth the paper it is
+written on, so long as the British fleet remains what it is. But, apart
+from that, I tell you here, of my own profound conviction--and I will
+prove it to you before many days are past--Germany does not intend to
+keep this promise."
+
+Nikasti made no reply. His face was expressionless.
+
+"Germany has but one idea," Lutchester continued. "She means to play
+you and America off against one another. I have found out her offer to
+you. All I can say is, if you take it seriously you are not the man I
+think you. Now I will tell you what I am going to do. I am going to
+find out her offer to America. I will bring that to you, and you shall
+see the two side by side. Then you shall know how much you can rely
+upon a country whose diplomacy is bred and born of lies, who cheats at
+every move of the game, who makes you a deliberate offer here which she
+never has the least intention of keeping. Have you anything to say to
+me, Nikasti?"
+
+Nikasti raised his eyes for one moment.
+
+"I have nothing to say," he replied. "I am the valet of Mr. Fischer and
+Mr. Van Teyl. These things are not of my concern."
+
+Lutchester shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Whatever you may be," he concluded, "and however much you may resent
+all that has happened, I know that you will wait. I might go direct to
+Washington, but I prefer to come to you, if it remains possible. Before
+you leave this country we will meet again, and, when you have heard me,
+you will tear that letter which you are treasuring next your heart into
+small pieces."
+
+Lutchester turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.
+Nikasti crouched in his place without movement. The ache in his heart
+seemed to be shining out of his face. He turned slowly towards the
+little figure of black ivory, his head drooped lower--he was filled
+with a great shame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Fischer raised his eyebrows in mild surprise to find Nikasti waiting
+for him in the sitting room that evening, with his overcoat and evening
+hat. He closed the door of the bedroom from which he had issued
+carefully behind him.
+
+"You don't need to go on with this business now that we have had our
+little talk," he remonstrated.
+
+"I cannot leave until the twentieth," Nikasti replied. "I think it best
+that I remain here. Your cocktail, sir."
+
+Fischer accepted the glass with a good-humoured little laugh.
+
+"Well," he said, "I suppose you know what you want to do, but it seems
+to me unnecessary. Say, is anything wrong with you? You seem shaken,
+somehow."
+
+"I am quite well," Nikasti declared gravely. "I am very well indeed."
+
+Fischer stared at him searchingly from behind his spectacles.
+
+"You don't look it," he observed. "If you'll take my advice, you'll get
+away from here and rest somewhere quietly for a few days. Why don't you
+try one of the summer hotels on Long Island?"
+
+Nikasti shook his head.
+
+"Until I sail," he decided, "I stay here. It is better so."
+
+"You know best, of course," Fischer replied. "Where's Mr. Van Teyl?"
+
+"He has gone out with his sister, sir--the young lady in the next
+suite," Nikasti announced.
+
+Fischer sighed for a moment. Then he finished his cocktail, drew on his
+gloves, and turned towards the door.
+
+"Well, good night," he said. "Perhaps you are wise to stay here.
+Remember always what it is that you carry about with you."
+
+"I shall remember," Nikasti promised.
+
+Fischer entered his automobile and drove to a fashionable restaurant in
+the neighbourhood of Fifth Avenue. Arrived here, he made his way to a
+room on the first floor, into which he was ushered by one of the head
+waiters. Von Schwerin was already there, talking with a little company
+of men.
+
+"Ah, our friend Fischer!" the latter exclaimed. "That makes our number
+complete."
+
+A waiter handed around cocktails. Fischer smiled as he raised his glass
+to his lips.
+
+"It is something, at least," he confided, "to be back in a country
+where one can speak freely. I raise my arm. Von Schwerin and
+gentlemen--'To the Fatherland!'"
+
+They all drank fervently and with a little guttural murmur. Von
+Schwerin set down his empty glass. He was looking a little glum.
+
+"In many ways, my dear Fischer," he said, "one sympathises with that
+speech of yours; but the truth is best, and it is to talk truths that
+we have met this evening. We are gaining no ground here. I am not sure
+that we are not losing."
+
+There was a moment's disturbed and agitated silence.
+
+"It is bad to hear," one little man acknowledged, with a sigh, "but who
+can doubt it? There is a fever which has caught hold of this country,
+which blazes in the towns and smoulders in the country places, and that
+is the fever of money-making. Men are blinded with the passion of it.
+They tell me that even Otto Schmidt in Milwaukee has turned his great
+factories into ammunition works."
+
+Von Schwerin's eyes flashed.
+
+"Let him be careful," he muttered, "that one morning those are not
+blackened walls upon which he looks! We go to dinner now, gentlemen,
+and, until we are alone afterwards, not one word concerning the great
+things."
+
+The partition doors leading into the dining room were thrown back and
+the little company of men sat down to dine. There were fourteen of
+them, and their names were known throughout the world. There was a
+steel millionaire, half-a-dozen Wall Street magnates, a clothing
+manufacturer, whose house in Fifth Avenue was reputed to have cost two
+millions. There was not one of them who was not a patriot--to Germany.
+They ate and drank through the courses of an abnormally long dinner
+with the businesslike thoroughness of their race. When at last the
+coffee and liqueurs had been served, the waiters by prearrangement
+disappeared, and with a little flourish Von Schwerin locked the door.
+Once more he raised his glass.
+
+"To the Kaiser and the Fatherland!" he cried in a voice thick with
+emotion.
+
+For a moment a little flash of something almost like spirituality
+lightened the gathering. They were at least men with a purpose, and an
+unselfish purpose.
+
+"Oscar Fischer," Von Schwerin said, "my friends, all of you, you know
+how strenuous my labours have been during the last year. You know that
+three times the English Ambassador has almost demanded my recall, and
+three times the matter has hung in the balance. I have watched events
+in Washington, not through my own but through a thousand eyes. My
+fingers are on the pulse of the country, so what I say to you needs
+nothing in the way of substantiation. The truth is best.
+Notwithstanding all my efforts, and the efforts of every one of you,
+the great momentum of public feeling, from California to Massachusetts,
+has turned slowly towards the cause of our enemies. Washington is
+hopelessly against us. The huge supplies which leave these shores day
+by day for England and France will continue. Fresh plants are being
+laid down for the manufacture of weapons and ammunition to be used
+against our country. The hand of diplomacy is powerless. We can
+struggle no longer. Even those who favour our cause are drunk with the
+joy of the golden harvest they are reaping. This country has spoken
+once and for all, and its voice is for our most hated enemy."
+
+There were a variety of guttural and sympathetic ejaculations. A dozen
+earnest faces turned towards Von Schwerin.
+
+"Diplomacy," Von Schwerin continued, "has failed. We come to the next
+step. There have been isolated acts of self-sacrifice, splendid in
+themselves but systemless. Only the day before yesterday a great
+factory at Detroit was burned to the ground, and I can assure you,
+gentlemen, I who know, that a thousand bales of cloth, destined for
+France, lie in a charred, heap amongst the ruins. That fire was no
+accident."
+
+There was a brief silence. Fischer nodded approvingly. Von Schwerin
+filled his glass.
+
+"This," he went on, "was the individual act of a brave and faithful
+patriot. The time has come for us, too, to remember that we are at war.
+I have striven for you with the weapons of diplomacy and I have failed.
+I ask you now to face the situation with me--to make use of the only
+means left to us."
+
+No one hesitated. Possibly ruin stared them in the face, but not one
+flinched. Their heads drew closer together. They discussed the ways and
+means of the new campaign.
+
+"We must add largely to our numbers," Von Schwerin said, "and we had
+better have a fund. So far as regards money, I take it for granted--"
+
+There was a little chorus of fierce whispers. Five million dollars were
+subscribed by men who were willing, if necessary, to find fifty.
+
+"It is enough," their leader assured them. "Much of our labours will be
+amongst those to whom money is no object. Only remember, all of you,
+this. We shall be a society without a written word, with no roll of
+membership, without documents or institution, for complicity in the
+things which follow will mean ruin. You are willing to face that?"
+
+Again that strange, passionate instinct of unanimity prevailed. To all
+appearance it was a gathering of commonplace, commercialised and
+bourgeois, easy-living men, but the touch of the spirit was there.
+Fischer leaned a little forward.
+
+"In two months' time," he said, "every factory in America which is
+earning its blood money shall be in danger. There will be a reign of
+terror. Each State will operate independently and secretly."
+
+"Our friend Fischer," Von Schwerin told them, "has promised to stay
+over here for the present to organise this undertaking. I, alas! am
+bound to remain always a little aloof, but the time may come, and very
+soon, too, when I shall be a free lance. On that day I shall throw my
+lot in with yours, to the last drop of my blood and the last hour of my
+liberty. Until then, trust Oscar Fischer. He has done great deeds
+already. He will show you the way to more."
+
+Fischer took off his spectacles and wiped them.
+
+"Our first proceeding," he said, "sounds paradoxical. It must be that
+we cease to exist. There can be no longer any meetings amongst us who
+stand in this country for Germany. Gatherings of this sort are
+finished. We meet, one or two of us, perhaps, by accident, in the clubs
+and in the streets, in our houses and perhaps in the restaurants, but
+the bond which unites us, and which no human power could ever sever
+because it is of the spirit, that bond from to-night is intangible.
+Wait, all of you, for a message. The task given to each shall not be
+too great."
+
+Mr. Max H. Bookam, a little black-bearded man who had started life
+tailoring in a garret, and was now a multi-millionaire, raised his
+glass.
+
+"No task shall seem too great," he muttered. "No risk shall make us
+afraid. Even the exile shall take up his burden."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Mr. Fischer's business later on that night led him into unsavoury
+parts. He left his car at the corner of Fourteenth Street, and, after a
+moment's reflection, as though to refresh his memory, he made his way
+slowly eastwards. He wore an unusually shabby overcoat, and a felt hat
+drawn over his eyes, both of which garments he had concealed in the
+automobile. Even then, however, his appearance made him an object of
+some comment. A little gang of toughs first jostled him and then turned
+and followed in his footsteps. A man came out of the shadows, and they
+broke away with an oath.
+
+"That cop'll get his head broke some day," Fischer heard one of them
+mutter, with appropriate adjectives.
+
+There were others who looked curiously at him. One man's hand he felt
+running over his pockets as he pushed past him. A couple of women came
+screaming down the street and seized him by the arms. He shook himself
+free, and listened without a word to their torrent of abuse. The lights
+here seemed to burn more dimly. Even the flares from the drinking dens
+seemed secretive, and the shadowy places impenetrable. It was before a
+saloon that at last he paused, listened for a moment to the sound of a
+cracked piano inside, and entered. The place was packed, and,
+fortunately for him, a scrap of some interest between two
+villainous-looking Italians in a distant corner was occupying the
+attention of many of the patrons. A man with white, staring face was
+banging at a crazy piano without a movement of his body, his whole
+energies apparently directed towards drowning the tumult of oaths and
+hideous execrations which came from the two combatants. A drunken
+Irishman, rolling about on the floor, kicked at him savagely as he
+passed. An undersized little creature, with the face of an old man but
+the figure of a boy, marked him from a distant corner and crept
+stealthily towards his side. Fischer reached the counter at last and
+stood there for a moment, waiting. Two huge, rough-looking negroes, in
+soiled linen clothes, were dispensing the drinks. As one of them
+passed, Fischer struck the counter with his forefinger, six or seven
+times, observing a particular rhythm. The negro started, turned his
+heavily-lidded, repulsive eyes upon Fischer, and nodded slightly. He
+handed out the drink he had in his hand, and leaned over the counter.
+
+"Want the boss?" he demanded.
+
+Fischer assented. The negro lifted the flap of the counter and opened a
+trapdoor, leading apparently into a cellar beneath.
+
+"Step right down," he muttered. "Don't let the boys catch on. Get out
+of that, Tim," he added thickly to the dwarflike figure, whose slender
+fingers were suddenly nearing Fischer's neck.
+
+The creature seemed to melt away. Fischer dived and descended a dozen
+steps or so into another bare looking apartment, the door of which was
+half open. There were three men seated at the solitary deal table,
+which was almost the only article of furniture to be seen. One,
+sombrely dressed in legal black, with a pale face and fiercely
+inquiring eyes, half rose to his feet as the newcomer entered.
+Another's hand went to his hip pocket. The man who was sitting between
+the two, however--a great red-headed Irishman--rose to his feet and
+pushed them back to their places.
+
+"There's no cause for alarm, now, boys," he declared. "This is a friend
+of mine. I won't make you acquainted, because we're all better friends
+strangers down in these parts. Hop it off, you two. Sit down here, Mr.
+Stranger."
+
+The two men stole away. The Irishman poured out a glassful of neat
+whisky and passed it to his visitor.
+
+"Clients of mine," he explained. "Tim Crooks is in politics. Got your
+message, boss. What's the figure?"
+
+"Two thousand!"
+
+The Irishman whistled and looked thoughtfully down at the table.
+
+"Isn't it enough?" Fischer asked.
+
+"Enough?" was the hoarse reply. "Why, there isn't one of my toughs that
+wouldn't go rat-hunting for a quarter of that. If it's any one in these
+parts, twelve hours is all I want."
+
+"It isn't!"
+
+The Irishman's face fell.
+
+"Some swell, I suppose? Fifth Avenue way and the swagger parts, eh?"
+
+Fischer assented silently. His host poured himself out some whisky and
+drank it as though it were water.
+
+"You see, boss," he pointed out, "it's no use sending greenhorns out on
+a job like that, because they only squeak if they're pinched, and
+pinched they're sure to be; and all my regulars are what we call in
+sanctuary."
+
+"You mean they are hiding already?"
+
+"That's some truth," was the grim admission. "The cops ain't going to
+trouble to come after 'em, so long as they keep here, but they'd nab
+'em fast enough if they showed their noses beyond the end of
+Fourteenth. Still, I'd like to oblige you, guv'nor. I don't know who
+you are, and don't want, but my boys speak fine of you. You know Ed
+Swindles?"
+
+"Not by name," Fischer confessed.
+
+"He did that little job up at Detroit," the Irishman went on, dropping
+his voice a little. "I tell you he's a genius at handling a bomb, is
+Ed. Blew that old factory into brick-ends, he did. He's in the saloon
+upstairs--got his girl with him. They've been doing a round of the
+dancing saloons."
+
+"That's all right, but what about this job?" Fischer inquired, a little
+impatiently.
+
+The Irishman glanced behind him. Then he dropped his voice a little.
+
+"Look here, guv'nor," he said, "I've some idea, if it pans out. You've
+heard of the Heste case?"
+
+"You mean the girl who was murdered?"
+
+"Yes! Well, the chap that did it is within a few feet of where we're
+sitting."
+
+Fischer took off his spectacles and rubbed them. In the dim light his
+face looked more grim and powerful than ever.
+
+"Isn't that a little dangerous?" he observed. "The police mean having
+him."
+
+"You're dead right," the Irishman replied. "They've got to have him,
+and he knows it. They'd keep their hands off any one in these parts if
+they could, but this bloke's different. He done it too thick, and he's
+got the public squealing. Now if we could get him out for long enough,
+he's the man for your job. Come right along, boss."
+
+He rose heavily to his feet, crossed the room, and threw open the door
+of what was little more than a cupboard at the further end. The place
+was in darkness, but a human form sprang suddenly upright. His white
+face and glaring eyes were the only visible objects in a shroud of
+darkness.
+
+"That's all right, kid," the Irishman said soothingly. "No cops yet.
+This is a gentleman on business. Wait till I fix a light."
+
+He stepped back, and brought a candle from the table at which he had
+been seated. Fischer helped him light it, and by degrees the interior
+of the little apartment was illuminated. Its contents were almost
+negligible--there was simply a foul piece of rug in the corner, and a
+broken chair. With his back to the wall crouched a slim, apparently
+young man, with a perfectly bloodless face and black eyes under which
+were blue lines. His clothes were torn and covered with dust, as though
+he had dragged himself about the floor, and one of his hands was
+bleeding.
+
+"The gentleman's on business, Jake," his host repeated.
+
+"Give me some whisky," the young man mumbled.
+
+The Irishman shaded his eyes.
+
+"Holy Moses! why, you've finished that bottle!" he exclaimed.
+
+"It's like water," the fugitive replied in a hot whisper, "I drink and
+I feel nothing; I taste nothing--I forget nothing! Give me something
+stronger."
+
+He tossed off without hesitation the tumbler half full of whisky which
+his guardian fetched him. Then he came out.
+
+"I'm sick of this," he declared. "I'll sit at your table. It's no use
+talking to me of jobs," he went on. "I couldn't get out of here. I made
+for the docks, but they headed me off. They know where I am. They'll
+have me sooner or later."
+
+"Yes, they'll have you right enough," the Irishman assented; "but if
+there was any chance in the world, this gent could give it to you. He's
+got a job he wants done up amongst the swells in Fifth Avenue, and
+there's money enough in it to buy Anna herself, if you want her. Anna's
+our real toff down here," he explained, turning to Fischer, "and all
+the boys are crazy about her."
+
+Jake shook his head, unimpressed. He fixed his eyes upon Fischer,
+moistened his lips a little, and spoke in a sort of croaky whisper.
+
+"Money's no use to me," he said, "nor women either--I'm through with
+them. You know what I done? I killed my girl. That's what I'm going to
+the chair for. But if I could get out of this, I'd do your job. I'm
+kind of hating people. I can't get my girl's face out of my mind.
+Perhaps if I did your job I'd have another one to think about."
+
+"Pleasant company, ain't he?" the Irishman grunted. "He's the real
+goods."
+
+Fischer stared at the young man as though fascinated. He seemed beyond
+and outside human comprehension. Their host was sitting with his hands
+in his pockets and his feet on another chair. The braces hung from his
+shoulders upon the floor, his collarless shirt had fallen a little
+open. His face, with its little tuft of red side whiskers and unshaven
+chin, was reminiscent of the forests.
+
+"If you want this job fixed, Mr. Stranger," he said, "I don't know as
+Jake here couldn't take it on. It'd have to be done like this. Jake's a
+real toney chauffeur--drive anything. If you had your automobile at a
+spot I could tell you of one evening, just at dusk, I might get him
+that far, in a set of chauffeur's clothes. Once on the box of your
+auto, he'd be out of this and could give 'em the slip for a bit. It's
+the only way I can think of, to get him near the game."
+
+"The arrangement would suit me," Fischer admitted.
+
+Jake suddenly showed a gleaming set of unexpectedly white teeth. His
+eyes stared more than ever.
+
+"I'm game! I'm on to this," he cried fiercely. "You can have all there
+is coming to me, Sullivan, if I get nabbed, but I'm going to take my
+risk. I hate this hole! It's a rat's den."
+
+"Then get you back to your cupboard, Jake," the Irishman enjoined.
+"I've got to talk business to the gent."
+
+The young man rose to his feet. He took the bottle of whisky under his
+arm. His face was still ashen, but his tone was steady. He gripped
+Fischer by the arm.
+
+"I will do your job," he promised. "I will do it thoroughly."
+
+He slouched across the floor, entered his cupboard, and disappeared.
+Fischer was suddenly aware of the moisture upon his forehead. There was
+something animallike, absolutely inhuman, about this creature with whom
+he had made his murderous bargain.
+
+"I have no money here, of course," he reminded his companion.
+
+"Don't know as I blame you, guv'nor," the other observed with a grin.
+"I saw my toughs lay out a guy only the other day for flashing a
+smaller wad than you'd carry. You know the rules, and I guess I'll ring
+up the bank to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock. Does that go?"
+
+"You'll find the deposit there," Fischer promised. "You'd better let me
+know when he's ready to take the job on."
+
+The Irishman walked to the foot of the steps with his visitor.
+
+"Give Joe the double knock on the trapdoor," he directed, "and get out
+of the saloon as quick as you can. There's a Dago about there keeps our
+hands full. Got anything with you?"
+
+Fischer nodded. His hand stole out of his overcoat pocket.
+
+"Better give them one if they look like trouble," his host advised.
+"They've plenty of spunk, but I can tell you they make tracks for their
+holes if they hear one of those things bark."
+
+"They shall hear it fast enough, if they try to hustle me," Fischer
+observed grimly.
+
+"You've some pluck," the Irishman declared, as he watched his departing
+guest ascend the steps. "Sure, this is no place for cowards, anyway.
+And good night and good luck to you! Jake will do your job slick, if
+any one could."
+
+Fischer beat his little tattoo upon the trapdoor, crawled through it
+and underneath the flap in the counter, out into the saloon. He paused
+for a moment to look around, on his way to the door. The fight was
+apparently over, for every one was standing at the counter, drinking
+with a swarthy-faced man whose cheeks were stained with blood. From a
+distant corner came the sound of groans. The air seemed heavier than
+ever with foul tobacco smoke. The man at the piano still thrashed out
+his unmelodious chords. Some women in a corner were pretending to
+dance. One or two of them looked curiously at Fischer, but he passed
+out, unchallenged. Even the air of the slum outside seemed pure and
+fresh after the heated den he had left. He reached the corner of the
+street in safety and stepped quickly into his car. He threw both
+windows wide open and murmured an order to the chauffeur. Then he
+leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. He was a man not
+overburdened with imagination, but it seemed to him just then that he
+would never be able altogether to forget the face of that ghastly,
+dehumanised creature, crouching like some terrified wild animal in his
+fetid refuge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Mrs. Theodore Hastings was forty-eight years old, which her friends
+said was the reason why her mansion on Fifth Avenue was furnished and
+lit with the delicate sombreness of an old Italian palace. There was
+about it none of the garishness, the almost resplendent brilliancy
+associated with the abodes of many of our neighbours. Although her
+masseuse confidently assured her that she looked twenty-eight, Mrs.
+Hastings preferred not to put the matter to the test. She received her
+carefully selected dinner guests in a great library with cedarwood
+walls, furnished with almost Victorian sobriety, and illuminated by
+myriads of hidden lights. Pamela, being a relative, received the
+special consideration of an affectionately bestowed embrace.
+
+"Pamela, my child, wasn't it splendid I heard that you were in New
+York!" she exclaimed. "Quite by accident, too. I think you treat your
+relatives shamefully."
+
+Her niece laughed.
+
+"Well, anyhow, you're the first of them I've seen at all, and directly
+Jim told me he was coming to you, I made him ring up in case you had
+room for me."
+
+"Jimmy was a dear," Mrs. Hastings declared, "and, of course, there
+couldn't be a time when there wouldn't be room for you. Even now, at
+the last moment, though, I haven't quite made up my mind where to put
+you. Choose, dear. Will you have a Western bishop or a rather dull
+Englishman?"
+
+"What is the name of the Englishman?" Pamela asked, with sudden
+intuition.
+
+"Lutchester, dear. Quite a nice name, but I know nothing about him. He
+brought letters to your uncle. Rather a queer time for Englishmen to be
+travelling about, we thought, but still, there he is. Seems to have
+found some people he knows--and I declare he is coming towards you!"
+
+"I met him in London," Pamela whispered, "and I never could get on with
+bishops."
+
+The dinner table was large, and arranged with that wonderful simplicity
+which Mrs. Hastings had adopted as the keynote of her New York parties.
+She had taken, in fact, simplicity under her wing and made a new thing
+of it. There were more flowers than silver, and cut glass than heavy
+plate. There seemed to be an almost ostentatious desire to conceal the
+fact that Mr. Hastings had robbed the American public of a good many
+million dollars.
+
+"Of course," Pamela declared, as they took their places, and she nodded
+a greeting to some friends around the table, "fate is throwing us
+together in the most unaccountable manner."
+
+"I accept its vagaries with resignation," Lutchester replied. "Besides,
+it is quite time we met again. You promised to show me New York, and I
+haven't seen you for days."
+
+"I don't even remember the promise," Pamela laughed, "but in any case I
+have changed my mind. I am not sure that you are the nice,
+simple-minded person you profess to be. I begin to have doubts about
+you."
+
+"Interest grows with mystery," Lutchester remarked complacently. "Let
+us hope that I am promoted in your mind."
+
+"Well, I am not at all sure. Of course, I am not an Englishman, so it
+is of no particular interest to me, but if you really came over here on
+important affairs, I am not sure that I approve of your playing golf
+the day after your arrival."
+
+"That, perhaps, was thoughtless," he admitted, "but one gets so short
+of exercise on board ship."
+
+"Of course," Pamela observed tentatively, "I'd forgive you even now if
+you'd only be a little more frank with me."
+
+"I am prepared to be candour itself," he assured her.
+
+"Tell me," she begged, "the whole extent of your mission in America?"
+
+He glanced around.
+
+"If we were alone," he replied, "I might court indiscretion so far as
+to tell you."
+
+"Then we will leave the answer to that question until after dinner,"
+she said.
+
+She talked to her left-hand neighbour for a few moments, and Lutchester
+followed suit. They turned to one another again, however, at the first
+opportunity.
+
+"I have conceived," she told him, "a great admiration for Mr. Oscar
+Fischer."
+
+"A very able man," Lutchester agreed.
+
+"He is not only that," Pamela continued, "but he is a man with large
+principles and great ideas."
+
+"Principles!" Lutchester murmured.
+
+"Of course, you don't like him," Pamela went on, "and I don't wonder at
+it. He is thoroughly German, isn't he?"
+
+"Almost prejudiced, I'm afraid," Lutchester assented.
+
+"Don't be silly," Pamela protested. "Why, he's German by birth, and
+although you English people are much too pig-headed to see any good in
+an enemy, I think you must admit that the way they all hang together--
+Germans, I mean, all over the world--is perfectly wonderful."
+
+"There have been a few remarks of the same sort," Lutchester reminded
+her, "about the inhabitants of the British Empire--Canadians,
+Australians, New Zealanders, for instance."
+
+"As a matter of fact," Pamela admitted generously, "I consider that
+your Colonials understand the word patriotism better than the ordinary
+Englishman. With them, as with the Germans, it is almost a passionate
+impulse. Your hearts may be in the right places, but you always give
+one the impression of finding the whole thing rather a bore."
+
+"Well, so it is," Lutchester insisted. "Who wants to give up a very
+agreeable profession and enter upon a career of bloodshed, abandon all
+one's habits, and lose most of one's friends? No, we are honest about
+that, at any rate! Germany may be enjoying this war. We aren't."
+
+"What was your profession?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"Diplomacy," Lutchester confided. "I intended to become an ambassador."
+
+"Do you think you have the requisite gifts?"
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"Secrecy, subtlety, caution, and highly-developed intelligence," she
+replied. "How's that?"
+
+"All those gifts," he assured her, "I possess."
+
+She fanned herself for a moment and looked at him.
+
+"We are not a modest race ourselves," she said, "but I think you can
+give us a lead. By the bye, were you playing golf with Senator Hamblin
+by accident the other afternoon?"
+
+"You mean the old Johnny down at Baltusrol?" he asked coolly. "I picked
+him up wandering about by the professionals' shed."
+
+"Did you talk politics with him?"
+
+"We gassed a bit about the war," Lutchester admitted cheerfully.
+
+Pamela laughed. She leaned a little forward. The buzz of conversation
+now was insistent all around them.
+
+"Of you two," she whispered, "I prefer Fischer."
+
+Lutchester considered the matter for some time.
+
+"Well, there's no accounting for tastes," he said presently. "I
+shouldn't have thought him exactly your type."
+
+"He may not be," Pamela confessed, "but at least he has the courage to
+speak what is in his mind."
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"So Fischer has taken you into his confidence, has he?" he murmured.
+"Well, now, that seems queer to me. I should have thought your
+interests would have lain the other way."
+
+"As an individual?"
+
+"As an American."
+
+"I am not wholly convinced of that."
+
+"Come," he protested, "what is the use of a friend from whom you are
+separated by an unnegotiable space?"
+
+"What unnegotiable space?"
+
+"The Atlantic."
+
+"And why is the Atlantic unnegotiable?"
+
+"Because of a little affair called the British fleet," Lutchester
+pointed out.
+
+"There is also," she reminded him drily, "a German fleet, and they
+haven't met yet."
+
+"Ah! I had almost forgotten there was such a thing," he murmured.
+"Where do they keep it?"
+
+"You know. You aren't nearly so stupid as you pretend to be," she said,
+a little impatiently. "I should like you so much better if you would be
+frank with me."
+
+"What about those qualifications for my ambassadorial career?" he
+reminded her--"Secrecy, subtlety, caution."
+
+"The master of these," she whispered, rising to her feet in response to
+her hostess's signal, "knows when to abandon them--"
+
+Lutchester changed his place to a vacant chair by James Van Teyl's
+side.
+
+"I was going to ask you, Mr. Van Teyl," he inquired, "whether your
+Japanese servant was altogether a success? I think I shall have to get
+a temporary servant while I am over here."
+
+"Nikasti was entirely Fischer's affair," Van Teyl replied, "and I can't
+say much about him as I have given up my share of the apartments at the
+Plaza. The fellow's all right, I dare say, but we hadn't the slightest
+use for a valet. The man on the floor's good enough for any one."
+
+"By the bye," Lutchester inquired, "is Fischer still in New York?"
+
+"No, he's in Washington," Van Teyl replied. "I believe he's expected
+back to-morrow.... Say, can I ask you a question?"
+
+Lutchester almost imperceptibly drew his chair a little closer.
+
+"Of course you can," he assented.
+
+"What I want to know," Van Teyl continued confidentially, "is how you
+get that long run on your cleek shots? I saw you play the sixteenth
+hole, and it looked to me as though the ball were never going to stop."
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"I have made a special study of that shot," he confided. "Yes, I can
+tell you how it's done, but it needs a lot of practice. It's done in
+turning over the wrists sharply just at the moment of impact. You get
+everything there is to be got into the stroke that way, and you keep
+the ball low, too."
+
+"Gee, I must try that!" Van Teyl observed, making spasmodic movements
+with his wrists. "When could we have a day down at Baltusrol?"
+
+"It will have to be next week, I'm afraid, if you don't mind,"
+Lutchester replied. "I've a good many appointments in New York, and I
+may have to go to Washington myself. By the bye, I thought our host
+lived there."
+
+"So he does," Van Teyl assented. "Nowadays, though, it seems to have
+become the fashion for politicians to own a house up in New York and do
+some entertaining here. They're after the financial interest, I
+suppose."
+
+"Is your uncle a keen politician?"
+
+"Keen as mustard," Van Teyl answered. "So's my aunt. She'd give her
+soul to have the old man nominated for the Presidency."
+
+"Any chance of it?"
+
+"Not an earthly! He'll come a mucker, though, some day, trying. He'd
+take any outside chance. For a clever man he's the vainest thing I
+know."
+
+Lutchester smiled enigmatically as he followed the example of the
+others and rose to his feet.
+
+"Even in America, then," he observed, "your great men have their
+weaknesses."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Fischer, exactly one week after his nocturnal visit to Fourteenth
+Street, hurried out of the train at the Pennsylvania Station, almost
+tore the newspapers from the news stand, glanced through them one by
+one and threw them back. The attendant, open-mouthed, ventured upon a
+mild protest. Fischer threw him a dollar bill, caught up his handbag,
+and made for the entrance. He was the first passenger from the
+Washington Limited to reach the street and spring into a taxi.
+
+"The Plaza Hotel," he ordered. "Get along."
+
+They arrived at the Plaza in less than ten minutes. Mr. Fischer tipped
+the driver lavishly, suffered the hall porter to take his bag, returned
+his greeting mechanically, and walked with swift haste to the tape
+machine. He held up the strips with shaking fingers, dropped them
+again, hurried to the lift, and entered his rooms. Nikasti was in the
+sitting-room, arranging some flowers. Fischer did not even stop to
+reply to his reverential greeting.
+
+"Where's Mr. Van Teyl?" he demanded.
+
+"Mr. Van Teyl has gone away, sir," was the calm reply. "He left here
+the day before yesterday. There is a letter."
+
+Fischer took no notice. He was already gripping the telephone receiver.
+
+"982, Wall," he said--"an urgent call."
+
+He stood waiting, his face an epitome of breathless suspense. Soon a
+voice answered him.
+
+"That the office of Neville, Brooks and Van Teyl?" he demanded. "Yes!
+Put me through to Mr. Van Teyl. Urgent!"
+
+Another few seconds of waiting, then once more he bent over the
+instrument.
+
+"That you, Van Teyl?... Yes, Fischer speaking. Oh, never mind about
+that! Listen. What price are Anglo-French?... No, say about what?...
+Ninety-five?... Sell me a hundred thousand.... What's that?... What?...
+Of course it's a big deal! Never mind that. I'm good enough, aren't I?
+There'll be no rise that'll wipe out half a million dollars. I've got
+that lying in cash at Guggenheimer's. If you need the money, I'll bring
+it you in half an hour. Get out into the market and sell. Damn you,
+what's it matter about news! Right! Sorry, Jim. See you later."
+
+Fischer put down the telephone and wiped his forehead. Notwithstanding
+the fatigue in his face, there was a glint of triumph there. He laid
+his hand upon Nikasti's shoulder.
+
+"My friend," he said, "there's big proof coming of what I said to you
+the other day. You'll find that letter you carry will mean a different
+thing now. There's news in the air."
+
+"There has been a great battle, perhaps?" Nikasti asked slowly.
+
+"All that is to be known you will hear before evening," Fischer
+replied. "Tell some one to send me some coffee. I have come through
+from Washington. I am tired."
+
+He sank a little abruptly into an easy-chair, took off his spectacles,
+and leaned his head back upon the cushions. In the sunlight his face
+was almost ghastly. A queer sense of weakness had suddenly assailed
+him. His mind flitted back through a vista of sleepless nights, of
+strenuous days, of passions held in leash, excitement ground down.
+
+"I am tired," he said. "Telephone down to the office, Nikasti, for a
+doctor."
+
+Nikasti obeyed, and his summons was promptly answered. The doctor who
+arrived was pleasantly but ominously grave. In the middle of his
+examination the telephone rang. Fischer, without ceremony, moved to the
+receiver. It was Van Teyl speaking.
+
+"I've sold your hundred thousand Anglo-French," he announced. "It's
+done the whole market in, though--knocked the bottom out of it. They've
+fallen a point and a half. Shall I begin to buy back for you? You'll
+make a bit."
+
+"Not a share," Fischer answered fiercely. "Wait!"
+
+"Have you any news you're keeping up your sleeve?" Van Teyl persisted.
+
+"If I have, it's my own affair," was the curt reply, "and I don't tell
+news over the telephone, anyway. Watch the market, and go on selling
+where you can."
+
+"I shall do as you order," Van Teyl replied, "but you're all against
+the general tone here. By the bye, you got my letter?"
+
+"I haven't opened it yet," Fischer snapped. "What's the matter?"
+
+"Pamela and I have taken a little flat in Fifty-eighth Street. Seems a
+little abrupt, but she didn't want to be alone, and she hates hotels.
+We felt sure you'd understand."
+
+"Yes, I understand," Fischer said. "Good-by! I'm busy."
+
+The doctor completed his examination. When he had finished he mentioned
+his fee.
+
+"You work too hard, and you live in an atmosphere of too great strain.
+The natural consequences are already beginning to show themselves. If I
+give you medicine, it will only encourage you to keep on wasting
+yourself, but you can have medicine if you like."
+
+"Send me something to take for the next fortnight," Fischer replied.
+"After that, I'll take my chance."
+
+The doctor wrote a prescription and took his leave. Fischer leaned back
+in his chair and closed his eyes. His mind travelled back through these
+latter days of his over-strenuous life. In such minutes of relaxation,
+few of which he permitted himself, he realised with bitter completeness
+the catastrophe which had overtaken him--him, Oscar Fischer, of all men
+on earth. Into his life of grim purposes, of lofty and yet narrow
+ambitions, of almost superhuman tenacity, had crept the one weakening
+strain whose presence in other men he had always scoffed at and
+derived. There was a new and enervating glamour over the days, a new
+and hatefully powerful rival for all his thoughts and dreams. Ten years
+ago, he reflected sadly, this might have made a different man of him,
+might have unlocked the gates into another, more peaceful and beautiful
+world, visions of which had sometimes vaguely disturbed him in his cold
+and selfish climb. Now it could only mean suffering. This was the first
+stroke. It was the assertion of humanity which was responsible for his
+present weakness. How far might it not drag him down?
+
+There should be a fight, at any rate, he told himself, as an hour or
+two later he made his way downtown. He paid several calls in the
+vicinity of Wall Street, and finished up in Van Teyl's office. That
+young man greeted him with a certain relief.
+
+"You know the tone of the market's still against you, Fischer," he
+warned him once more.
+
+Fischer threw himself into the client's easy-chair. The furniture in
+the office seemed less distinct than usual. He was conscious of a
+certain haziness of outline in everything. Van Teyl's face, even, was
+shrouded in a little mist. Then he suddenly found himself fighting
+fiercely, fighting for his consciousness, fighting against a wave of
+giddiness, a deadly sinking of the heart, a strange slackening of all
+his nerve power. The young stockbroker rose hastily to his feet.
+
+"Anything wrong, old fellow?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"A glass of water," Fischer begged.
+
+He was conscious of drinking it, vaguely conscious that he was winning.
+Soon the office had regained its ordinary appearance, his pulse was
+beating more regularly. He had once more the feeling of living--of
+living, though in a minor key.
+
+"A touch of liver," he murmured. "What did you say about the markets?"
+
+"You look pretty rotten," Van Teyl remarked sympathetically. "Shall I
+send out for some brandy?"
+
+"Not for me," Fischer scoffed. "I don't need it. What price are
+Anglo-French?"
+
+"Ninety-four. You've only done them in a point, after all, and that's
+nominal. I daresay I could get ten thousand back at that."
+
+"Let them alone," was the calm reply. "I'll sell another fifty thousand
+at ninety-four."
+
+"Look here," Van Teyl said, swinging round in his chair, "I like the
+business and I know you can finance it, but are you sure that you
+realise what you are doing? Every one believes Anglo-French have
+touched their bottom. They've only to go back to where they were--say
+five points--and you'd lose half a million."
+
+Fischer smiled a little wearily.
+
+"That small sum in arithmetic," he remonstrated, "had already passed
+through my brain. Send in your selling order, Jim, and come out to
+lunch with me. I've come straight through from Washington--only got in
+this morning."
+
+Van Teyl called in his clerk and gave a few orders. Then he took up his
+hat and left the office with his client.
+
+"From Washington, eh?" he remarked curiously, as they passed into the
+crowded streets. "So that accounts--"
+
+He broke off abruptly. His companion's warning fingers had tightened
+upon his arm.
+
+"Quite right!" Van Teyl confessed. "There's gossip enough about now,
+and they seem to have tumbled to it that you're our client. The office
+has been besieged this morning. Sorry, Ned, I'm busy," he went on, to a
+man who tried to catch his arm. "See you later, Fred. I'll be in after
+lunch, Mr. Borrodaile. No, nothing fresh that I know of."
+
+Fischer smiled grimly.
+
+"Got you into a kind of hornets' nest, eh?" he observed.
+
+"It's been like this all the morning," Van Teyl told him. "They believe
+I know something. Even the newspaper men are tumbling to it. We'll
+lunch up at the club. Maybe we'll get a little peace there."
+
+They stepped into the hall of a great building, and took one of the
+interminable row of lifts. A few minutes later they were seated at a
+side table in a dining room on the top floor of one of the huge modern
+skyscrapers. Below them stretched a silent panorama of the city;
+beyond, a picturesque view of the river. A fresh breeze blew in through
+the opened window. They were above the noise, even, of the street cars.
+
+"Order me a small bottle of champagne, James," Fischer begged, "and
+some steak."
+
+Van Teyl stared at his companion and laughed as he took up the wine
+list.
+
+"Well, that's the first time, Fischer, I've known you to touch a drop
+of anything before the evening! I'll have a whisky and soda with you.
+Thank God we're away from that inquisitive crowd for a few minutes! Are
+you going to give me an idea of what's moving?"
+
+Fischer watched the wine being poured into his glass.
+
+"Not until this evening," he said. "I want you to bring your sister and
+come and dine at the new roof-garden."
+
+"I don't know whether Pamela has any engagement," Van Teyl began, a
+little dubiously.
+
+"Please go and see," Fischer begged earnestly. "The telephones are just
+outside. Tell your sister that I particularly wish her to accept my
+invitation. Tell her that there will be news."
+
+Van Teyl went out to the telephone. Fischer sipped his champagne and
+crumbled up his bread, his eyes fixed a little dreamily on the grey
+river. He was already conscious of the glow of the wine in his veins.
+The sensation was half pleasurable, in a sense distasteful to him. He
+resented this artificial humanity. He had the feeling of a man who has
+stooped to be doped by a quack doctor. And he was a little afraid.
+
+His young companion returned triumphant.
+
+"Had a little trouble with Pamela," he observed, as he resumed his
+place at the table. "She was thinking of the opera with a girl friend
+she picked up this morning. However, the idea of news, I think,
+clinched it. We'll be at the Oriental at eight o'clock, eh?"
+
+Fischer looked up from the fascinating patchwork below. Already there
+was anticipation in his face.
+
+"I am very glad," he said. "There will certainly be news."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+"Now indeed I feel that I am in New York," Pamela declared, as she
+broke off one of the blossoms of the great cluster of deep red roses by
+her side, and gazed downward over her shoulder at the far-flung carpet
+of lights. "One sees little bits of America in every country of the
+world, but never this."
+
+Fischer, unusually grave and funereal-looking in his dinner clothes and
+black tie, followed her gesture with thoughtful eyes. Everything that
+was ugly in the stretching arms of the city seemed softened, shrouded
+and bejewelled. Even the sounds, the rattle and roar of the overhead
+railways, the clanging of the electric car bells, the shrieking of the
+sirens upon the river, seemed somehow to have lost their harsh note, to
+have become the human cry of the great live city, awaking and
+stretching itself for the night.
+
+"I agree with you," he said. "You dine at the Ritz-Carlton and you
+might be in Paris. You dine here, and one knows that you are in
+America."
+
+"Yet even here we have become increasingly luxurious," Pamela remarked,
+looking around. "The glass and linen upon the tables are quite French;
+those shaded lights are exquisite. That little band, too, was playing
+at the Ritz three years ago. I am sure that the maitre d'hotel who
+brought us to our table was once at the Cafe de Paris."
+
+"Money would draw all those things from Europe even to the Sahara,"
+Fischer observed, "so long as there were plenty of it. But millions
+could not buy our dining table in the clouds."
+
+"A little effort of the imagination, fortunately," Pamela laughed,
+looking upwards. "There are stars, but no clouds."
+
+"I guess one of them is going to slip down to the next table before
+long," Van Teyl observed, with a little movement of his head.
+
+They all three turned around and looked at the wonderful bank of pink
+roses within a few feet of them.
+
+"One of the opera women, I daresay," the young man continued. "They are
+rather fond of this place."
+
+Pamela leaned forward. Fischer was watching the streets below; Only a
+short distance away was a huge newspaper building, flaring with lights.
+The pavements fringing it were thronged with a little stationary crowd.
+A row of motor-bicycles was in waiting. A night edition of the paper
+was almost due.
+
+"Mr. Fischer," she asked, "what about that news?"
+
+He withdrew his eyes from the street. Almost unconsciously he
+straightened himself a little in his place. There was pride in his
+tone. Behind his spectacles his eyes flashed.
+
+"I would have told it you before," he said, "but you would not have
+believed it. Soon--in a very few moments--the news will be known. You
+will see it break away in waves from that building down there, so I
+will bear with your incredulity. The German and British fleets have
+met, and the victory has remained with us."
+
+"With us?" Pamela repeated.
+
+"With Germany," Fischer corrected himself hastily.
+
+"Is this true?" James Van Teyl almost shouted. "Fischer, are you sure
+of what you're saying? Why, it's incredible!"
+
+"It is true," was the proud reply. "The German Navy has been a long
+time proving itself. It has done so now. To-day every German citizen is
+the proudest creature breathing. He knew before that his armies were
+invincible. He knows now that his fleet is destined to make his country
+the mistress of the seas. England's day is over. Her ships were badly
+handled and foolishly flung into battle. She has lost many of her
+finest units. Her Navy is to-day a crippled and maimed force. The
+German fleet is out in the North Sea, waiting for an enemy who has
+disappeared."
+
+"It is inconceivable," Pamela gasped.
+
+"I do not ask you to believe my word," Fischer exclaimed. "Look!"
+
+As though the flood gates had been suddenly opened, the stream of
+patient waiters broke away from the newspaper building below. Like
+little fireflies, the motor-bicycles were tearing down the different
+thoroughfares. Boys like ants, with their burden of news sheets, were
+running in every direction. Motor-trucks had started on their furious
+race. Even the distant echoes of their cries came faintly up. Fischer
+called a messenger and sent him for a paper.
+
+"I do not know what report you will see," he said, "but from whatever
+source it comes it will confirm my story. The news is too great and
+sweeping to be contradicted or ignored."
+
+"If it's true," Van Teyl muttered, "you've made a fortune in my office
+to-day. It looks like it, too. There was something wrong with
+Anglo-French beside your selling for the last hour this afternoon. I
+couldn't get buyers to listen for a moment."
+
+"Yes, I shall have made a great deal of money," Fischer admitted,
+"money which I shall value because it comes magnificently, but I hope
+that this victory may help me to win other things."
+
+He looked fixedly at Pamela, and she moved uneasily in her chair.
+Almost unconsciously the man himself seemed somehow associated with his
+cause, to be assuming a larger and more tolerant place in her thoughts.
+Perhaps there was some measure of greatness about him after all. The
+strain of waiting for the papers became almost intolerable. At last the
+boy reappeared. The great black headlines were stretched out before
+her. She felt the envelopment of Fischer's triumph. The words were
+there in solid type, and the paper itself was one of the most reliable.
+
+GREAT NAVAL BATTLE IN THE NORTH SEA.
+
+BRITISH ADMIRALTY ADMITS SERIOUS LOSSES.
+
+"QUEEN MARY," "INDEFATIGABLE," AND MANY FINE SHIPS LOST.
+
+Pamela looked up from the sheet.
+
+"It is too wonderful," she whispered, with a note of awe in her tone.
+"I don't think that any one ever expected this. We all believed in the
+British Navy."
+
+"There is nothing," Fischer declared, "that England can do which
+Germany cannot do better."
+
+"And America best of all," Pamela said.
+
+Fischer bowed.
+
+"That is one comparison which will never now be made," he declared,
+"for from to-night Germany and America will draw nearer together. The
+bubble of British naval omnipotence is pricked."
+
+"Meanwhile," Van Teyl observed, putting his paper away, "we are
+neglecting our dinner. Nothing like a good dose of sensationalism for
+giving us an appetite."
+
+Fischer was watching his glass being filled with champagne. He seized
+it by the stem. His eyes for a moment travelled upwards.
+
+"I am an American citizen," he said, with a strange fervour in his
+tone, "but for the moment I am called back. And so I lift my glass and
+I drink--I alone, without invitation to you others--to those brave
+souls who have made of the North Sea a holy battle-ground."
+
+He drained his glass and set it down empty. Pamela watched him as
+though fascinated. For a single moment she was conscious of a queer
+sensation of personal pity for some shadowy and absent friend, of
+something almost like a lump in her throat, a strange instinct of
+antagonism towards the man by her side so enveloped in beatific
+satisfaction--then she frowned when she realised that she had been
+thinking of Lutchester, that her first impulse had been one of sympathy
+for him. The moment passed. The service of dinner was pressed more
+insistently upon them. James Van Teyl, who had been leaning back in his
+chair, talking to one of the maitres d'hotel, dismissed him with a
+little nod and entrusted them with a confidence.
+
+"Say, do you know who's coming to the next table?" he exclaimed.
+"Sonia!"
+
+They were all interested.
+
+"You won't mind?" Fischer asked diffidently.
+
+"In a restaurant, how absurd!" Pamela laughed. "Why, I'm dying to see
+her. I wonder how it is that some of these greatest singers in the
+world lead such extraordinary lives that people can never know anything
+of them."
+
+"Society is tolerant enough nowadays," her brother observed, "but Sonia
+won't give them even a decent chance to wink at her eccentricities. She
+crossed, you know, on the Prince Doronda's yacht, for fear they
+wouldn't let her land."
+
+"Here she comes," Pamela whispered.
+
+There was a moment's spellbound silence. Two maitres d'hotel were
+hurrying in front. A pathway from the lift had been cleared as though
+for a royal personage. Sonia, in white from head to foot, a dream of
+white lace and chinchilla, with a Russian crown of pearls in her glossy
+black hair, and a rope of pearls around her neck, came like a waxen
+figure, with scarlet lips and flashing eyes, towards her table. And
+behind her--Lutchester! Pamela felt her fingers gripping the
+tablecloth. Her first impulse, curiously enough, was one of wild fury
+with herself for that single instant's pity. Her face grew cold and
+hard. She felt herself sitting a little more upright. Her eyes remained
+fixed upon the newcomers.
+
+Lutchester's behaviour was admirable. His glance swept their little
+table without even a shadow of interest. He ignored with passive
+unconcern the mistake of Van Teyl's attempted greeting. He looked
+through Fischer as though he had been a ghost. He stood by Sonia's side
+while she seated herself, and listened with courteous pleasure to her
+excited admiration of the flowers and the wonderful vista. Then he took
+his own place. In his right hand he was carrying an evening paper with
+its flaming headlines.
+
+"That," Fischer pronounced, struggling to keep the joy from his tone,
+"is very British and very magnificent!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Pamela had imperfect recollections of the rest of the evening. She
+remembered that she was more than usually gay throughout dinner-time,
+but that she was the first to jump at the idea of a hurried departure
+and a visit to a cabaret. Every now and then she caught a glimpse of
+Sonia's face, saw the challenging light in her brilliant eyes, heard
+little scraps of her conversation. The Frenchwoman spoke always in her
+own language, with a rather shrill voice, which made Lutchester's
+replies sound graver and quieter than usual. More than once Pamela's
+eyes rested upon the broad lines of his back. He sat all the time like
+a rock, courteous, at times obviously amusing, but underneath it all
+she fancied that she saw some signs of the disturbance from which she
+herself was suffering. She rose to her feet at last with a little sigh
+of relief. It was an ordeal through which she had passed.
+
+Once in the lift, her brother and Fischer discussed Lutchester's
+indiscretion volubly.
+
+"I suppose," Van Teyl declared, "that there isn't a man in New York who
+wouldn't have jumped at the chance of dining alone with Sonia, but for
+an Englishman, on a night like this," he went on, glancing at the
+paper, "say, he must have some nerve!"
+
+"Or else," Fischer remarked, "a wonderful indifference. So far as I
+have studied the Anglo-Saxon temperament, I should be inclined to vote
+for the indifference. That is why I think Germany will win the war.
+Every man in that country prays for his country's success, not only in
+words, but with his soul. I have not found the same spirit in England."
+
+"The English people," Pamela interposed, "have a genius for concealment
+which amounts to stupidity."
+
+"I have a theory," Fischer said, "that to be phlegmatic after a certain
+pitch is a sign of low vitality. However, we shall see. Certainly, if
+England is to be saved from her present trouble, it will not be the
+Lutchesters of the world who will do it, nor, it seems, her Navy."
+
+They found their way to a large cabaret, where Pamela listened to an
+indifferent performance a little wearily. The news of what was termed a
+naval disaster to Great Britain was flashed upon the screen, and,
+generally speaking, the audience was stunned. Fischer behaved
+throughout the evening with tact and discretion. He made few references
+to the matter, and was careful not to indulge in any undue
+exhilaration. Once, when Van Teyl had left the box, however, to speak
+to some friends, he turned earnestly to Pamela.
+
+"Will it please you soon," he begged, "to resume our conversation of
+the other day? However you may look at it, things have changed, have
+they not? An invincible British Navy has been one of the fundamental
+principles of beliefs in American politics. Now that it is destroyed,
+the outlook is different. I could go myself to the proper quarter in
+Washington, or Von Schwerin is here to be my spokesman. I have a fancy,
+though, to work with you. You know why."
+
+She moved uneasily in her place.
+
+"I have no idea," she objected, "what it is that you have to propose.
+Besides, I am only just a woman who has been entrusted with a few
+diplomatic errands."
+
+"You are the niece of Senator Hastings," Fischer reminded her, "and
+Hastings is the man through whom I should like my proposal to go to the
+President. It is an honest offer which I have to make, and although it
+cannot pass through official channels, it is official in the highest
+sense of the word, because it comes to me from the one man who is in a
+position to make himself responsible for it."
+
+Her brother came back to the box before Pamela could reply, but, as
+they parted that night, she gave Fischer her hand.
+
+"Come and see our new quarters," she invited. "I shall be at home any
+time to-morrow afternoon."
+
+It was one of the moments of Fischer's life. He bowed low over her
+fingers.
+
+"I accept, with great pleasure," he murmured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+Sonia had the air of one steeped in an almost ecstatic content. On her
+return from the roof garden she had exchanged her wonderful gown for a
+white silk negligee, and her headdress of pearls for a quaint little
+cap. She was stretched upon a sofa drawn before the wide-flung French
+windows of her little sitting-room at the Ritz-Carlton, a salon
+decorated in pink and white, and filled almost to overflowing with the
+roses which she loved. By her side, in an easy chair which she had
+pressed him to draw up to her couch, sat Lutchester.
+
+"This," she murmured, "is one of the evenings which I adore. I have no
+work, no engagements--just one friend with whom to talk. My fine
+clothes have done. I am myself," she added, stretching out her arms. "I
+have my cigarettes, my iced sherbet, and the lights and murmur of the
+city there below to soothe me. And you to talk with me, my friend. What
+are you thinking of me--that I am a little animal who loves comfort too
+much, eh?"
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"We all love comfort," he replied. "Some of us are franker than others
+about it."
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"Comfort! It is my own word, but what a word! It is luxury I
+worship--luxury--and a friend. Is that, perhaps, another
+word too slight, eh?"
+
+He met the provocative gleam of her eyes with a smile of amusement.
+
+"You are just the same child, Sonia," he remarked. "Neither climate nor
+country, nor the few passing years, can change you."
+
+"It is you who have grown older and sterner," she pouted. "It is you who
+have lost the gift of living to-day as though to-morrow were not. There
+was a time, was there not, John, when you did not care to sit always so
+far away?"
+
+She laid her hand--ringless, over-manicured, but delicately white----
+upon his. He smoothed it gently.
+
+"You see, Sonia," he sighed, "troubles have come that harden the hearts
+even of the gayest of us."
+
+She frowned.
+
+"You are not going to remind me--" she began.
+
+"If I reminded you of anything, Sonia," he interrupted, "I would remind
+you that you are a Frenchwoman."
+
+She stretched out her hand restlessly and took one of the Russian
+cigarettes from a bowl by her side.
+
+"You are not, by any chance, going to talk seriously, dear John?"
+
+"I am," he assured her, "very seriously."
+
+"Oh, la, la!" she laughed. "You, my dear, gay companion, you who have
+shaken the bells all your life, you are going to talk seriously! And
+to-night, when we meet again after so long. Ah, well, why should I be
+surprised?" she went on, with a pout.
+
+"You have changed. When one looks into your face, one sees the
+difference. But to me, of all people in the world! Why talk seriously
+to me! I am just Sonia, the gipsy nightingale. I know nothing of
+serious things."
+
+"You carry one very serious secret in your heart," he told her gravely,
+"one little pain which must sometimes stab you. You are a Frenchwoman,
+and yet--"
+
+Lutchester paused for a moment. Sonia, too, seemed suddenly to have
+awakened into a state of tense and vivid emotion. The cigarette burned
+away between her fingers. Her great eyes were fixed upon Lutchester.
+There was something almost like fear in their questioning depths.
+
+"Finish! Finish!" she insisted. "Continue!"
+
+"And yet," he went on, "your very dear friend, the friend for whose
+sake you are here in America, is your country's enemy."
+
+She raised herself a little upon the couch.
+
+"That is not true," she declared furiously. "Maurice loves France. His
+heart aches for the misery that has come upon her. It is your country
+only which he hates. If France had but possessed the courage to stand
+by herself, to resist when England forced her friendship upon her, none
+of this tragedy would ever have happened. Maurice has told me so
+himself. France could have peace today, peace at her own price."
+
+"There is no peace which would leave France with a soul, save the peace
+which follows victory," Lutchester replied sternly.
+
+She crushed her cigarette nervously in her fingers, threw it away, and
+lit another.
+
+"I will not talk of these things with you," she cried. "It was not for
+this that you sought me out, eh? Tell me at once? Were these the
+thoughts you had in your mind when you sent your little note?--when you
+chose to show yourself once more in my life?"
+
+For the first time of his own accord, he drew his chair a little nearer
+to hers. He took her hand. She gave him both unresistingly.
+
+"Listen, dear Sonia," he said, "it is true that I am a changed man. I
+am older than when we met last, and there are the other things. You
+remember the Chateau d'Albert?"
+
+"Of course!" she murmured. "And the young Duc d'Albert's wonderful
+house party. We all motored there from Paris. You and I were together!
+You have forgotten that, eh?"
+
+"I lay in that orchard for two days," he went on grimly, "with a hole
+in my side and one leg pretty nearly done for. I saw things I can never
+forget, in those days, Sonia. D'Albert himself was killed. It was in
+that first mad rush. Of the Chateau there remains but four blackened
+walls."
+
+"_Pauvre enfant_!" she murmured. "But you are well and strong again
+now, is it not so? You will not fight again, eh? You were never a
+soldier, dear friend."
+
+"Just now," he confided, "I have other work to do. It is that other
+work which has brought me to America."
+
+She drew him a little closer to her. Her eyes questioned him.
+
+"There is, perhaps, now," she asked, "a woman in your life?"
+
+"There is," he admitted.
+
+She made a grimace.
+
+"But how clumsy to tell me, even though I asked," she exclaimed. "What
+is she like? ... But no, I do not wish to hear of her! If she is all
+the world to you, why did you send me that little note? Why are you
+here?"
+
+"Because we were once dear friends, Sonia," he said, "because I wish to
+save you from great trouble."
+
+She shrank from him a little fearfully.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Sonia," he continued, with a note of sternness in his tone, "during
+the last two years you have gone back and forth between New York and
+Paris, six times. I do not think that you can make that journey again."
+
+She was standing now, with one hand gripping the edge of the table.
+
+"John! ... John! ... What do you mean?" she demanded, and this time her
+own voice was hard.
+
+"I mean," he said, "that when you leave here for Paris you will be
+watched day and night. The moment you set foot upon French soil you
+will be arrested and searched. If anything is found upon you, such as a
+message from your friend in Washington--well, you know what it would
+mean. Can't you see, you foolish child, the risk you have been running?
+Would you care to be branded as a spy?--you, a daughter of France?"
+
+She struck at him. Her lace sleeves had fallen back, and her white arm,
+with its little clenched fist, flashed through the twilight, aimlessly
+yet passionately.
+
+"You dare to call me a spy! You, John?" she shrieked. "But it is
+horrible."
+
+"It is the work of a spy," he told her gravely, "to bring a letter from
+any person in a friendly capital and deliver it to an enemy. That is
+what you have done, Sonia, many times since the beginning of the war,
+so far without detection. It is because you are Sonia that I have come
+to save you from doing it again."
+
+She groped her way back to the couch. She threw herself upon it with
+her back towards him, her head buried in her hands.
+
+"The letters are only between friends," she faltered. "They have
+nothing to do with the war."
+
+"You may have believed that," Lutchester replied gently, "but it is not
+true. You have been made the bearer of confidential communications from
+the Austrian Embassy here to certain people in Paris whom we will not
+name. I have pledged my word, Sonia, that this shall cease."
+
+She sprang to her feet. All the feline joy of her languorous ease
+seemed to have departed. She was quivering and nervous. She stood over
+her writing-table.
+
+"A telegraph blank!" she exclaimed. "Quick! I will not see Maurice
+again. Oh, how I have suffered! This shall end it. See, I have written
+'Good-by!' He will understand. If he comes, I will not see him. Ring
+the bell quickly. There--it is finished!"
+
+A page-boy appeared, and she handed him the telegram. Then she turned a
+little pathetically to Lutchester.
+
+"Maurice was foolish--very often foolish," she went on unsteadily, "but
+he has loved me, and a woman loves love so much. Now I shall be lonely.
+And yet, there is a great weight gone from my mind. Always I wondered
+about those letters. You will be my friend, John? You will not leave me
+all alone?"
+
+He patted her hand.
+
+"Dear Sonia," he whispered, "solitude is not the worst thing one has to
+bear, these days. Try and remember, won't you, that all the men who
+might have loved you are fighting for your country, one way or
+another."
+
+"It is all so sad," she faltered, "and you--you are so stern and
+changed."
+
+"It is with me only as it is with the whole world," he told her.
+"To-night, though, you have relieved me of one anxiety."
+
+Her eyes once more were for a moment frightened.
+
+"There was danger for poor little me?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"It is past," he assured her.
+
+"And it is you who have saved me," she murmured. "Ah, Mr. John," she
+added, as she walked with him to the door, "if ever there comes to me a
+lover, not for the days only but _pour la vie,_ I hope that he may be
+an Englishman like you, whom all the world trusts."
+
+He laughed and raised her fingers to his lips.
+
+"Over-faithful, you called us once," he reminded her.
+
+"But that was when I was a child," she said, "and in days like these we
+are children no longer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Lutchester left Sonia and the Ritz-Carlton a few minutes before
+midnight, to find a great yellow moon overhead, which seemed to have
+risen somewhere at the back of Central Park. The broad thoroughfare up
+which he turned seemed to have developed a new and unfamiliar beauty.
+The electric lamps shone with a pale and almost unnatural glow. The
+flashing lights of the automobiles passing up and down were almost
+whimsically unnecessary. Lutchester walked slowly up Fifth Avenue in
+the direction of his hotel.
+
+Something--the beauty of the night, perhaps, or some faint aftermath of
+sentimentality born of Sonia's emotion--tempted him during those few
+moments to relax. He threw aside his mask and breathed the freer for
+it. Once more he was a human being, treading the streets of a real
+city, his feet very much upon the earth, his heart full of the simplest
+things. All the scheming of the last few days was forgotten, the great
+issues, the fine yet devious way to be steered amidst the rocks which
+beset him; even the depression of the calamitous news from the North
+Sea passed away. He was a very simple human being, and he was in love.
+It was all so unpractical, so illusionary, and yet so real. Events,
+actual happenings--he thrust all thoughts of these away from his mind.
+What she might be thinking of him at the moment he ignored. He was
+content to let his thoughts rest upon her, to walk through the moonlit
+street, his brain and heart revelling in that subtle facility of the
+imagination which brought her so easily to his presence. It was such a
+vividly real Pamela, too, who spoke and walked and moved by his side.
+His memory failed him nowhere, followed faithfully the kaleidoscopic
+changes in her face and tone, showed him even that long, grateful,
+searching glance when their eyes had met in Von Teyl's sitting-room.
+There had been times when she had shown clearly enough that she was
+anxious to understand, anxious to believe in him. He clung to the
+memory of these; pushed into the background that faint impression he
+had had of her at the roof-garden, serene and proud, yet with a faint
+look of something like pain in her startled eyes.
+
+A large limousine passed him slowly, crawling up Fifth Avenue.
+Lutchester, with all his gifts of observation dormant, took no notice
+of its occupant, who leaned forward, raised the speaking-tube to his
+lips, and talked for a moment to his chauffeur. The car glided round a
+side street and came to a standstill against the curb. Its solitary
+passenger stepped quietly out and entered a restaurant. The chauffeur
+backed the car a little, slipped from his place, and followed
+Lutchester.
+
+By chance the little throng of people here became thicker for a few
+moments and then ceased. Lutchester drew a little sigh of relief as he
+saw before him almost an empty pavement. Then, just as he was relapsing
+once more into thought, some part of his subconscious instinct suddenly
+leaped into warning life. Without any actual perception of what it
+might mean, he felt the thrill of imminent danger, connected it with
+that soft footfall behind him, and swung round in time to seize a
+deadly uplifted hand which seemed to end in a shimmer of dull steel.
+His assailant flung himself upon Lutchester with the lithe ferocity of
+a cat, clinging to his body, twisting and turning his arm to wrest it
+free. It was a matter of seconds only before his intended victim, with
+a fierce backward twist, broke the man's wrist and, wrenching himself
+free from the knees which clung around him, flung him forcibly against
+the railings which bordered the pavement. Lutchester paused for a
+moment to recover his breath and looked around. A man from the other
+side of the street was running towards them, but no one else seemed to
+have noticed the struggle which had begun and finished in less than
+thirty seconds. The man, who was half-way across the thoroughfare,
+suddenly stopped short. He shouted a warning to Lutchester, who swung
+around. His late assailant, who had been lying motionless, had raised
+himself slightly, with a revolver clenched in his left hand.
+Lutchester's spring on one side saved his life, for the bullet passed
+so close to his cheek that he felt the rush and heat of the air. The
+man in the center of the road was busy shouting an alarm vociferously,
+and other people on both sides of the thoroughfare were running up.
+Lutchester's eyes now never left the dark, doubled-up figure upon the
+pavement. His whole body was tense. He was prepared at the slightest
+movement to spring in upon his would-be murderer. The man's eyes seemed
+to be burning in his white face. He called out to Lutchester hoarsely.
+
+"Don't move or I shall shoot!"
+
+He looked up and down the street. One of the nearest of the hastening
+figures was a policeman. He turned the revolver against his own temple
+and pulled the trigger....
+
+Lutchester and a policeman walked slowly back along Fifth Avenue.
+Behind them, a little crowd was still gathered around the spot from
+which the body of the dead man had already been removed in an
+ambulance.
+
+"I really remember nothing," Lutchester told his companion, "until I
+heard the footsteps behind me, and, turning round, saw the knife. This
+is simply an impression of mine--that he might have descended from the
+car which passed me and stopped just round the corner of that street."
+
+"He's a chauffeur, right enough," the inspector remarked. "It don't
+seem to have been a chance job, either. Looks as though he meant doing
+you in. Got any enemies?"
+
+"None that I know of," Lutchester answered cautiously. "Why, the car's
+there still," he added, as they reached the corner.
+
+"And no chauffeur," the other muttered.
+
+The officer searched the car and drew out a license from the flap
+pocket. The commissionaire from the restaurant approached them.
+
+"Say, what are you doing with that car?" he demanded.
+
+"Better fetch the gentleman to whom it belongs," the inspector
+directed.
+
+"What's up, anyway?" the man persisted.
+
+"You do as you're told," was the sharp reply.
+
+The commissionaire disappeared. The officer studied the license which
+he had just opened.
+
+"What's the name?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+The man hesitated for a moment, then passed it over.
+
+"Oscar H. Fischer," he said. "Happen to know the name?"
+
+Lutchester's face was immovable. He passed the license back again. They
+both turned round. Mr. Fischer had issued from the restaurant.
+
+"What's wrong?" he asked hastily. "The commissionaire says you want me,
+Mr. Officer?"
+
+The inspector produced his pocketbook.
+
+"Just want to ask you a few questions about your chauffeur, sir."
+
+Fischer glanced at the driver's seat of the car, as though aware of the
+man's disappearance for the first time.
+
+"What's become of the fellow?" he inquired.
+
+"Shot himself," the inspector replied, "after a deliberate attempt to
+murder this gentleman."
+
+Mr. Fischer's composure was admirable. There was a touch of gravity
+mingled with his bewilderment. Nevertheless, he avoided meeting
+Lutchester's eyes.
+
+"You horrify me!" he exclaimed. "Why, the fellow's only been driving
+for me for a few hours."
+
+"That so?" the officer remarked, with a grunt. "Get any references with
+him?"
+
+"As a matter of fact, I did not," Fischer admitted frankly. "I
+discharged my chauffeur yesterday, at a moment's notice, and this man
+happened to call just as I was wanting the car out this afternoon. He
+promised to bring me references to-morrow from Mr. Gould and others. I
+engaged him on that understanding. He told me that his name was Kay--
+Robert Kay. That is all that I know about him, except that he was an
+excellent driver. I am exceedingly sorry Mr. Lutchester," he went on,
+turning towards him, "that this should have happened."
+
+"So you two know one another, eh?" the officer observed.
+
+"Oh, yes, we know one another!" Lutchester admitted drily.
+
+"I shall have to ask you both for your names and addresses," the
+official continued. "I think I won't ask you any more questions at
+present. Seems to me headquarters had better take this on."
+
+"I shall be quite at your service," Lutchester promised.
+
+The man made a few more notes, saluted, and took his leave. Fischer and
+Lutchester remained for a moment upon the pavement.
+
+"It is a dangerous custom," Lutchester remarked, "to take a servant
+without a reference."
+
+"It will be a warning to me for the remainder of my life," Fischer
+declared.
+
+"I, too, have learnt something," Lutchester concluded, as he turned
+away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Fischer, as he waited for Pamela the following afternoon in the
+sitting-room of her flat on Fifty-eighth Street, felt that although the
+practical future of his life might be decided in other places, it was
+here that its real climax would be reached. Pamela herself was to
+pronounce sentence upon him. He was feeling scarcely at his best. An
+examination in the courthouse, which he had imagined would last only a
+few minutes, had been protracted throughout the afternoon. The district
+attorney had asked him a great many questions, some rather awkward
+ones, and the inquiry itself had been almost grudgingly adjourned for a
+few hours. And here, in Pamela's sitting-room, the first things which
+caught his eye were the headlines of one of the afternoon papers:
+
+WESTERN MILLIONAIRE ENGAGES
+THE GIRL HESTE'S MURDERER
+AS CHAUFFEUR!
+
+ATTEMPTED MURDER AND SUICIDE
+IN FIFTH AVENUE
+LAST NIGHT.
+
+Fischer pushed the newspaper impatiently away, and, in the act of doing
+so, the door was opened and Pamela entered. She came towards him with
+outstretched hand.
+
+"I see you are looking at the account of your misdeeds," she said, as
+she seated herself behind a tea tray. "Will you tell me why a cautious
+man like you engages, without reference, a chauffeur who turns out to
+be a murderer?"
+
+Fischer frowned irritably.
+
+"For four hours," he complained, "several lawyers and a most
+inquisitive police captain have been asking me the same question in a
+hundred different ways. I engaged the man because I needed a chauffeur
+badly. He was to have brought his references this morning. I was only
+trusting him for a matter of a few hours."
+
+"And during those few hours," she observed, "he seems to have developed
+a violent antipathy to Mr. Lutchester."
+
+"I do not understand the affair at all," Mr. Fischer declared, "and, if
+I may say so, I am a little weary of it. I came here to discuss another
+matter altogether."
+
+She leaned back in her place.
+
+"What have you come to discuss, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"That depends so much upon you," he replied. "If you give me any
+encouragement, I can put before you a great proposition. If your
+prejudices, however, remain as I think they always have been, on the
+side of England, why then I can do nothing."
+
+"If I counted for anything," Pamela said, "I mean to say if it mattered
+to any one what my attitude was, I would start by admitting that my
+sympathies are somewhat on the side of the Allies. On the other hand,
+my sympathies amount to nothing at all compared with my interest in the
+welfare of the United States. I am perfectly selfish in that respect."
+
+"Then you have an open mind to hear what I have to say," Fischer
+remarked. "I am glad of it. You encourage me to proceed."
+
+"That is all very well," Pamela said, stirring her tea, "but I cannot
+help asking once more why you come to me at all? What have I to do with
+any proposition you may have to make?"
+
+"Just this," he explained. "I have a serious and authentic proposition
+to make to the American Government. I cannot make it officially--
+although it comes from the highest of all sources--for the most obvious
+reasons. It may seem better worth listening to to-day, perhaps, than a
+week ago, so far as you are concerned. That is because you believed in
+British invincibility upon the sea. I never did."
+
+"Go on, please," Pamela begged. "I am still waiting to realise my
+position in all this."
+
+"I should like," Fischer declared, "my proposition to reach the
+President through Senator Hastings, and Senator Hastings is your
+uncle."
+
+"I see," Pamela murmured.
+
+"My offer itself is a very simple one," Fischer continued. "Your secret
+service is so bad that you probably know nothing of what is happening.
+Ours, on the other hand, is still marvellously good, and what I am
+going to tell you is surely the truth. Japan is accumulating great
+wealth. She is saving her ships and men for one purpose, and one purpose
+only. Europe could not bribe her highly enough to take a more active part
+in this war. Her price was one which could not be paid. She demanded a
+free hand with the United States."
+
+"This," Pamela admitted, "is quite interesting, but it is entirely in
+the realms of conjecture, is it not?"
+
+"Not wholly," Fischer insisted. "At the proper time I should be
+prepared to bring you evidence that tentative proposals were made by
+Japan to both England and France, asking what would be their attitude,
+should she provide them with half a million men and undertake
+transport, if at the conclusion of the war she desired a settlement
+with the United States. The answer from France and England was the
+same--that they could not countenance an inimical attitude towards the
+States."
+
+"You are bound to admit, then," Pamela remarked, "that England played
+the game here."
+
+"The bribe was not big enough," Fischer replied drily. "England would
+sell her soul, but not for a mess of pottage. To proceed, however,
+Japan has practically kept out of the war. She is enjoying a prosperity
+never known before, and for every million pounds' worth of munitions
+she exports to Russia, she puts calmly on one side twenty-five per
+cent, to accumulate for her own use. At the conclusion of the war she
+will be in a position she has never occupied before, and while the rest
+of the world is still gasping, she will proceed to carry out what has
+been the dream of her life--the invasion of your Western States."
+
+"I admit that this is plausible," Pamela confessed, "but you are only
+pointing out a very obvious danger, for which I imagine that we are
+already fairly well prepared."
+
+"Believe me," Fischer said earnestly, "you are not. It is this fact
+which makes the whole situation so vital to you. Later on in our
+negotiations, I will show you proof of your danger. Meanwhile, let me
+proceed to the offer which I am empowered to make, which comes direct
+from the one person in Germany whose word is unshakable."
+
+Pamela changed her position a little, as though to escape from the
+sunlight which was finding its way underneath the broad blinds. Her
+eyes were fixed upon her visitor. She listened intently to every word
+he had to say. Despite some vague feeling of mistrust, which she
+acknowledged to herself might well have been prejudiced, she found the
+situation interesting, even stimulating. Her few excursions into the
+world of high politics had never brought her into such a position as
+this. She felt both flattered and interested--attracted, too, in some
+nameless way, by the man's personality, his persistence, his daring,
+his whole-heartedness. The situation was instinct with interest to her.
+
+"But why make it to me?" she murmured.
+
+"You are to be my delegate," he answered. "Take the substance of what I
+say to you, to your uncle. Try, for your country's sake, to interest
+him in it. The offer which I make shall save you a vast amount of
+sacrifice. It shall save your dislocating the industries of the country
+and sowing the seeds of a disturbing and yet inadequate militarism. I
+offer you, in short, a German alliance against Japan."
+
+"The value of that offer," Pamela remarked thoughtfully, "would depend
+rather upon the issue of the present war, wouldn't it?"
+
+Fischer's face darkened. His tone was almost irritable.
+
+"That is already preordained," he said firmly. "You see, I will be
+quite frank with you. Germany has lost her chance of sweeping and
+complete victory. The result of the war will be a return to the
+status-quo-ante. Yet, believe me, Germany will be strong enough to
+settle some of the debts she owes, and the debt to Japan is one of
+these."
+
+"Still, there is the practical question of getting men and ships over
+from Germany to America," Pamela persisted.
+
+"It is already solved," was the swift reply. "At the proper time I will
+show you and prove how it can be done. At present, not one word can
+pass my lips. It is one of the secrets on which the future of Germany
+depends."
+
+"And the price?" Pamela asked.
+
+"That America adopts our view as to the high seas traffic," Fischer
+replied. "This would mean the stopping of all supplies, munitions and
+ammunition from America to England. We offer you an alliance. We ask
+only for your real and actual neutrality for the remainder of the war.
+We offer a great and substantial advantage, a safeguard for your
+country's future, in return for what? Simply that America will pursue
+the course of honour and integrity to all nations."
+
+"America," Pamela declared, "has never failed in this."
+
+Fischer shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"There is more than one point of view," he reminded her. "Will you take
+my message with you to Washington to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," Pamela promised, "I will do that. The rest, of course, remains
+with others. I do not myself go so far, even," she added, "as to
+declare myself in sympathy with you."
+
+"And yet," he insisted, with swift violence, "it is your sympathy which
+I desire more than anything in the world--your sympathy, your help,
+your companionship; a little--a very little at first--of your love."
+
+"I am afraid that I am not a very satisfactory person from that point
+of view," Pamela confessed. "I have a great sympathy with every man who
+is really out for the great things, but so far as you are concerned,
+Mr. Fischer, or any one else," she went on, after a moment's
+hesitation, "I have no personal feeling."
+
+"That shall come," he declared.
+
+"Then please wait a little time before you talk to me again like this,"
+she said, rising and holding out her hand. "At present there is no sign
+of it."
+
+"There is so much that I could offer you," he pleaded, gripping the
+hand which she had given him in farewell, "so much that I could do for
+your country. Believe me, I am not talking idly."
+
+"I do believe that," she admitted. "You are a very clever man, Mr.
+Fischer, and I think that you represent all that you claim. Perhaps, if
+we really do negotiate--"
+
+"But you must!" he interrupted impatiently. "You must listen to me for
+every reason--politically for your country's sake, personally because I
+shall offer you and give you happiness and a position you could never
+find elsewhere."
+
+For a moment her eyes seemed to be looking through him, as though some
+vision of things outside the room were troubling her. Her finger had
+already touched the bell and a servant was standing upon the threshold.
+
+"We shall meet in Washington," Mr. Fischer concluded, with an air of a
+prophet, as he took his leave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+It was within half an hour of closing time that same afternoon when
+Lutchester walked into James Van Teyl's office. The young man greeted
+him with some surprise.
+
+"Will you do some business for me?" Lutchester asked, without any
+preliminaries.
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"How many Anglo-French will you buy for me? I can obtain credit by
+cable to-morrow through any bank for twenty or thirty thousand pounds."
+
+"You want to buy Anglo-French?" Van Teyl repeated softly.
+
+His visitor nodded.
+
+"Any news?"
+
+Lutchester hesitated, and Van Teyl continued with an apologetic
+gesture.
+
+"I beg your pardon. That's not my job, anyway, to ask questions. I'll
+buy you twenty-five thousand, if you like. Guess they can't drop much
+lower."
+
+Lutchester sat down.
+
+"Thank you," he said, "I will wait."
+
+A little ripple of excitement went through the office as Van Teyl
+started his negotiations. It seemed to Lutchester that several
+telephones and half a dozen perspiring young men were called into his
+service. In the end Van Teyl made out a note and handed it to him.
+
+"I could have done better for you yesterday," he observed. "The market
+is strengthening all the time. There are probably some rumours."
+
+A boy went by along the pavement outside waving a handful of papers.
+His cry floated in through the open window:
+
+REPORTED LOSS OF MANY MORE GERMAN
+BATTLESHIPS.
+BRITISH CLAIM VICTORY.
+
+Van Teyl grinned.
+
+"You got here just in time," he murmured, "but I suppose you knew all
+about this."
+
+"I have known since three o'clock," Lutchester replied, "that all the
+reports of a German victory were false. You will find, when the truth
+is known, that the German losses were greater than the British."
+
+"Then if that's so," Van Teyl remarked, "I've got one client who'll
+lose a hatful which you ought to make. Coming up town?"
+
+"I should like, if I may?" Lutchester said, "to be permitted to pay my
+respects to your sister."
+
+"Why, that's fine!" Van Teyl exclaimed unconvincingly. "We'll take the
+subway up."
+
+They left the office and plunged into the indescribable horrors of
+their journey. When they stepped out into the sunlit street in another
+atmosphere, Van Teyl laid his hand upon his companion's arm in friendly
+fashion.
+
+"Say, Lutchester," he began, "I don't know that you are going to find
+Pamela exactly all that she might be in the way of amiability and so
+on. I know these things are done on the other side, but here it's
+considered trying your friends pretty high to take a lady of Sonia's
+reputation where you are likely to meet your friends. No offence, eh?"
+
+"Certainly not," Lutchester replied. "I was sorry, of course, to see
+you last night. On the other hand, Sonia is an old friend, and my
+dinner with her had an object. I think I could explain it to your
+sister."
+
+"I don't know that I should try," Van Teyl advised. "For all her
+cosmopolitanism, Pamela has some quaint ideas. However, I thought I'd
+warn you, in case she's a bit awkward."
+
+Pamela, however, had no idea of being awkward. She welcomed Lutchester
+with a very sweet smile, and gave him the tips of her fingers.
+
+"I was wondering whether we should see you again before we went," she
+said. "We are leaving for Washington to-morrow."
+
+"By the three o'clock train, I hope?" he ventured.
+
+She raised her eyebrows.
+
+"Why, are you going, too?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"I should have thought most of the munition works," she observed, "were
+further north."
+
+"They are," he acknowledged, "but I have business in Washington. By the
+bye, will you both come out and dine with me to-night?"
+
+Van Teyl glanced at his sister. She shook her head.
+
+"I am so sorry," she said, "but we are engaged. Perhaps we shall see
+something of you in Washington."
+
+"I have no doubt you will," Lutchester replied "All the same," he
+added, "it would give me very great pleasure to entertain you at dinner
+this evening."
+
+"Why particularly this evening?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her with a queer directness, and Pamela felt certain very
+excellent resolutions crumbling. She suffered her brother to leave the
+room without a word.
+
+"Because," he explained, "I think you will find a different atmosphere
+everywhere. There will be news in the evening papers."
+
+"News?" she repeated eagerly. "You know I am always interested in
+that."
+
+"The reports of a German naval victory were not only exaggerated,"
+Lutchester said calmly; "they were untrue. Our own official
+announcement was clumsy and tactless, but you will find it amplified
+and explained to-night."
+
+Pamela listened with an interest which bordered upon excitement.
+
+"You are sure?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Absolutely," he replied. "My notification is official."
+
+"So you think if we dined with you, the atmosphere to-night would be
+different?" she observed, with a sudden attempt at the recondite.
+
+Lutchester looked into her eyes without flinching. Pamela, to her
+annoyance, was worsted in the momentary duel.
+
+"We cannot always choose our atmosphere," he reminded her.
+
+"Mademoiselle Sonia is perhaps connected with the regulation of the
+munition supplies from America?"
+
+"Mademoiselle Sonia," Lutchester asserted, "is an old friend of mine.
+Apart from that, it was my business to talk to her."
+
+"Your business?"
+
+Lutchester assented with perfect gravity.
+
+"Within a day or two," he said, "now, if you made a point of it, I
+could explain a great deal."
+
+Pamela threw herself into a chair almost irritably.
+
+"You have the cult of being mysterious, Mr. Lutchester," she declared.
+"To be quite frank with you, you seem to be the queerest mixture of any
+man I ever knew."
+
+"It is the fault of circumstances," he regretted, "if I am sometimes
+compelled to present myself to you in an unfavourable light. Those
+circumstances are passing. You will soon begin to value me at my true
+worth."
+
+"We had half promised," Pamela murmured, "to go out with Mr. Fischer
+this evening."
+
+"The more reason for my intervention," Lutchester observed. "Fischer is
+not a fit person for you to associate with."
+
+She laughed curiously.
+
+"People who saw you at the roof-garden last night might say that you
+were scarcely a judge," Pamela retorted.
+
+"People who did not know the circumstances might have considered me
+guilty of an indiscretion," Lutchester admitted, "but they would have
+been entirely wrong. On the other hand, your friend Fischer is a
+would-be murderer, a liar, and is at the present moment engaged in
+intrigues which are a most immoral compound of duplicity and cunning."
+
+"I shall begin to think," Pamela murmured, "that you don't like Mr.
+Fischer!"
+
+"I detest him heartily," Lutchester confessed.
+
+"I find him singularly interesting," Pamela announced, sitting up in
+her chair.
+
+"I dare say you do," Lutchester replied. "Women are always bad judges
+of our sex. All the same, you are not going to marry him."
+
+"How do you know he wants to marry me?" Pamela demanded.
+
+"Instinct!"
+
+"And what do you mean by saying that I am not going to marry him?"
+
+"Because," Lutchester announced, "you are going to marry some one
+else."
+
+Pamela rose to her feet. There was a little spot
+of colour in her cheeks.
+
+"Am I indeed!" she exclaimed. "And whom, pray?"
+
+"That I will tell you at Washington," Lutchester promised.
+
+"You know his name, then?"
+
+"I know him intimately," was the cool reply. "What about our dinner
+to-night?"
+
+"We are going to dine with Mr. Fischer," Pamela decided.
+
+"I really don't think so," Lutchester objected. "For one thing, Mr.
+Fischer will probably have to attend the police court again later on."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"For having hired a famous murderer to try and get rid of me."
+Lutchester explained suavely.
+
+"Do you really believe that?" Pamela scoffed. "Why should he want to
+get rid of you? What harm can you do him?"
+
+"I am trying to find out," Lutchester replied grimly. "Still, since you
+ask the question, the pocketbook which is on its way to Germany, and
+which I picked up when Nikasti was taken ill--"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know about that!" Pamela interrupted. "That is the one
+thing that always sets me thinking about you. What did you do it for?
+How did you know what it meant to me?"
+
+"Divination, I imagine," Lutchester answered, "or perhaps I was
+thinking what it might mean to Mr. Fischer."
+
+She looked at him and her face was a study in mixed expressions. Her
+forehead was a little knitted, her eyes almost strained in their desire
+to read him; her lips were petulant.
+
+"Dear me, what a puzzle you are!" she exclaimed. "All the same, I am
+going to wait for Mr. Fischer. It doesn't matter whether one dines or
+sups. I suppose he will get away from the police court sometime or
+other."
+
+"But anyway," he protested, "you've heard all that Mr. Fischer has to
+say. Now I, on the other hand, haven't shown you my hand yet."
+
+"Heard all that Mr. Fischer has to say?" she repeated.
+
+"Certainly! Wasn't he here for several hours with you this afternoon?
+Didn't he promise you an alliance with Germany against Japan, if you
+could persuade certain people at Washington to change their tone and
+attitude towards the export of munitions?"
+
+"This," she declared, trying to keep a certain agitation from her tone,
+"is mere bluff."
+
+Lutchester was suddenly very serious indeed.
+
+"Listen," he said, "I can prove to you, if you will, that it is not
+bluff. I can prove to you that I really know something of what I am
+talking about."
+
+"There is nothing I should like better," she declared.
+
+"To begin with then," Lutchester said, "the pocketbook which Nikasti is
+supposed to have stolen from your room, the pocketbook of young Sandy
+Graham, which Mr. Fischer has sent to Germany, does not contain the
+formula of the new explosive, or any other formula that amounts to
+anything."
+
+"Just how do you know that?" she demanded.
+
+"To continue," Lutchester said, playing with a little ornament upon the
+mantelpiece, "you have an appointment--within half an hour, I
+believe--with Mr. Paul Haskall, who is a specialist in explosives,
+having an official position with the American Government."
+
+She had ceased to struggle any longer with her surprise. She looked at
+him fixedly but remained silent.
+
+"It is your belief," he proceeded, "that you are going to hand over to
+him the formula of which we were speaking."
+
+"It is no belief," she replied. "It is certainty. I took it myself from
+Graham's pocket."
+
+Lutchester nodded.
+
+"Good! Have you opened it?"
+
+"I have," she declared. "It is without doubt, the formula."
+
+"On the other hand, I am here to assure you that it is not," Lutchester
+replied.
+
+Her hand was tearing at the cushion by her side. She moistened her
+lips. There was something about Lutchester hatefully convincing.
+
+"What do you mean?" she demanded. "Is this a trick. You won't get it!
+No one but Mr. Haskall will get that formula from me!"
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"It will only puzzle him when he gets it! To tell you the truth, the
+formula is rubbish."
+
+"I don't believe you," she said firmly. "If you think you are going to
+interfere with my handing it over to him, you are mistaken."
+
+"I have no wish to do anything of the sort," Lutchester assured her.
+"Make a bargain with me. Mr. Haskall will be here soon. Unfasten the
+little package you are carrying somewhere about your person, hand him
+the envelope and watch his face. If he tells you that what you have
+offered him is a coherent and possible formula for an explosive, then
+you can look upon me for ever afterwards as the poor, foolish person
+you sometimes seem to consider me. If, on the other hand, he tells you
+that it is rubbish, I shall expect you at the Ritz-Carlton at half-past
+eight."
+
+There was a ring at the bell. She rose to her feet.
+
+"I accept," she declared. "That is Mr. Haskall. And, by the bye, Mr.
+Lutchester, don't order too elaborate a dinner, for I am very much
+afraid you will have to eat it all yourself. Now, au revoir," she
+added, as the door was opened in obedience to her summons and a servant
+stood prepared to show him out. "If we don't turn up to-night, you will
+know the reason."
+
+"I am very hopeful," Lutchester replied, as he turned away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+At five-and-twenty minutes past eight that evening Lutchester, who was
+waiting in the entrance hall of the Ritz-Carlton, became just a little
+restless. At half-past, his absorption in an evening paper, over the
+top of which he looked at every newcomer, was almost farcical. At
+five-and-twenty to nine Pamela arrived. He advanced down the lounge to
+meet her. Her face was inscrutable, her smile conventional. Yet she had
+come! He looked over his shoulder towards the men's coat room.
+
+"Your brother?"
+
+"I sent Jim to his club," she said. "I want to have a confidential talk
+with you, Mr. Lutchester."
+
+"I am very flattered," he told her, with real earnestness.
+
+She vanished for a few moments in the cloakroom, and reappeared, a
+radiant vision in deep blue silk. Her hair was gathered in a coil at
+the top of her head, and surmounted with an ornament of pearls.
+
+"You are looking at my headdress," she remarked, as they walked into
+the room. "It is the style you admire, is it not?"
+
+He murmured something vague, but he knew that he was forgiven. They
+were ushered to their places by a portly maitre d'hotel, and she
+approved of his table. It was set almost in an alcove, and was
+partially hidden from the other diners.
+
+"Is this seclusion vanity or flattery?"
+
+"As a matter of fact, it is rather a popular table," he told her. "We
+have an excellent view of the room, and yet one can talk here without
+being disturbed."
+
+"To talk to you is exactly what I wish to do," she said, as they took
+their places. "We commence, if you please, with a question. Mr. Fischer
+thought that he had that formula and he hasn't. I could have sworn that
+it was in my possession--and it isn't. Where is it?"
+
+"I took it to the War Office before I left England," he told her
+simply. "They will have the first few tons of the stuff ready next
+month."
+
+"You!" she cried, "But where did you get it?"
+
+"I happened to be first, that's all," he explained. "You see, I had the
+advantage of a little inside information. I could have exposed the
+whole affair if I had thought it wise. I preferred, however, to let
+matters take their course. Young Graham deserved all he got there, and
+I made sure of being the first to go through his papers. I'm afraid I
+must confess that I left a bogus formula for you."
+
+"I had begun to suspect this," Pamela confessed. "You don't mind being
+put into the witness box, do you?" she added, as she pushed aside the
+menu with a little sigh of satisfaction. "How wonderfully you order an
+American dinner!"
+
+"I am so glad I have chosen what you like," he said, "and as to being
+in the witness box--well, I am going to place myself in the
+confessional, and that is very much the same thing, isn't it?"
+
+"To begin at the beginning, then--about that destroyer?"
+
+"My mission over here was really important," he admitted. "I couldn't
+catch the _Lapland_, so the Admiralty sent me over."
+
+"And your golf with Senator Hamblin? It wasn't altogether by accident
+you met him down at Baltusrol, was it?"
+
+"It was not," he confessed, "I had reason to suspect that certain
+proposals from Berlin were to be put forward to the President either
+through his or Senator Hastings' mediation. There were certain facts in
+connection with them, which I desired to be the first to lay before the
+authorities."
+
+She looked around the room and recognised some of her friends. For some
+reason or other she felt remarkably light-hearted.
+
+"For a poor vanquished woman," she observed, turning back to
+Lutchester, "I feel extraordinarily gay to-night. Tell me some more."
+
+He bowed.
+
+"Mademoiselle Sonia," he proceeded, "has been a friend of mine since
+she sang in the cafes of Buda Pesth. I dined with her, however, because
+it had come to my knowledge that she was behaving in a very foolish
+manner."
+
+Pamela nodded understandingly.
+
+"She was the friend of Count Maurice Ziduski, wasn't she?"
+
+"She is no longer," Lutchester replied. "She sailed for France this
+morning without seeing him. She has remembered that she is a
+Frenchwoman."
+
+"It was you who reminded her!"
+
+"Love so easily makes people forgetful," he said, "and I think that
+Sonia was very fond of Maurice Ziduski. She is a thoughtless,
+passionate woman, easily swayed through her affections, and she had no
+idea of the evil she was doing."
+
+"So that disposes of Sonia," Pamela reflected.
+
+"Sonia was only an interlude," Lutchester declared. "She really doesn't
+come into this affair at all. The one person who does come into it,
+whom you and I must speak of, is Fischer."
+
+"A most interesting man," Pamela sighed. "I really think his wife would
+have a most exciting life."
+
+"She would!" Lutchester agreed. "She'd probably be allowed to visit him
+once every fourteen days in care of a warder."
+
+"Spite!" Pamela exclaimed, with a suspicious little quiver at the
+corner of her lips.
+
+Lutchester shook his head.
+
+"Fischer is too near the end of his rope for me to feel spiteful," he
+said, "though I am quite prepared to grant that he may be capable of
+considerable mischief yet. A man who has the sublime effrontery to
+attempt to come to an agreement with two countries, each behind the
+other's back, is a little more than Machiavellian, isn't he?"
+
+"Is that true of Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Absolutely," Lutchester assured her. "He is over here for the purpose
+of somehow or other making it known informally in Washington that
+Germany would be willing to pledge herself to an alliance with America
+against Japan, after the war, if America will alter her views as to the
+export of munitions to the Allies."
+
+"Well, that's a reasonable proposition, isn't it, from his point of
+view?" Pamela remarked. "It may not be a very agreeable one from yours,
+but it is certainly one which he has a right to make."
+
+"Entirely," Lutchester agreed, "but where he goes wrong is that his
+primary object in coming here was to meet Hie chief of the Japanese
+Secret Service, to whom he has made a proposition of precisely similar
+character."
+
+Pamela set down her glass.
+
+"You are not in earnest!"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"Nikasti?"
+
+"Precisely! He came all the way from Japan to confer with Fischer.
+Probably, if we knew the whole truth, those rooms at the Plaza Hotel,
+and the social partnership of your brother and Fischer, were arranged
+for no other reason than to provide a safe personality for Nikasti in
+this country, and a safe place for him to talk things over with
+Fischer."
+
+"Mr. Fischer was paying nearly the whole of the expenses of the Plaza
+suite," Pamela observed thoughtfully.
+
+"Naturally," Lutchester replied. "Your brother's name was a good, safe
+name to get behind. But to conclude with our friend Nikasti. He is
+supposed to leave New York next Saturday, and to carry to the Emperor
+of Japan an autograph letter from a nameless person, promising him, if
+Japan will cease the export of munitions to Russia, the aid of Germany
+in her impending campaign against America."
+
+"An autograph letter, did you say?" Pamela almost gasped.
+
+"An autograph letter," Lutchester repeated firmly. "Now don't you agree
+with me that Fischer's game is just a little too daring?"
+
+"It is preposterous!" she cried.
+
+"I have a theory," Lutchester continued, "that Fischer was never
+intended to use more than one of these letters. It was intended that he
+should study the situation here, approach one side, and, if
+unsuccessful, try the other. Fischer, however, conceived a more
+magnificent idea. He seems to be trying both at the same time. It is
+the sublime egotism of the Teutonic mind."
+
+"It is monstrous!" Pamela exclaimed indignantly.
+
+"It is almost as monstrous," Lutchester agreed, "as his daring to raise
+his eyes to you, although, so far as you are concerned, I believe that
+he is as honest as the man knows how to be."
+
+"And why," she asked, "do you credit him with so much good faith?"
+
+"Because," Lutchester replied, "if he had not been actuated by personal
+motives, he would never have sought you out as an intermediary. There
+are other sources open to him, by means of which he could make equally
+sure of reaching the President's ear. His idea was to impress you. It
+was foolish but natural."
+
+Pamela was deep in thought. There was an angry spot of colour burning
+in her cheek.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me, Mr. Lutchester," she persisted, "that this
+afternoon, say, when with every appearance of earnestness he was
+begging me to put these propositions before my uncle, he had really
+made precisely similar overtures to Japan?"
+
+"I give you my word that this is the truth," Lutchester assured her
+solemnly.
+
+She looked at him with something almost like wonder in her eyes.
+
+"But you?" she exclaimed. "How do you know this? How can you be sure of
+it?"
+
+"I have seen the autograph letter which Nikasti has in his possession,"
+he announced.
+
+"You mean that Mr. Fischer showed it to you?" she exclaimed
+incredulously.
+
+Lutchester hesitated.
+
+"There are methods," he said, "which those who fight in the dark places
+for their country are forced sometimes to make use of. I have seen the
+letter. I have half convinced those who represent Japan in this matter
+of Fischer's duplicity. With your help I am hoping wholly to do so."
+
+Pamela leaned for a moment back in her chair.
+
+"Really," she declared, "I am beginning to have the feeling that I am
+living almost too rapidly. Let us have a breathing spell. I wonder what
+all these other people are talking about."
+
+"Probably," he suggested, with a little glance around, "about
+themselves. We will follow their example. Will you marry me, please,
+Miss Van Teyl?"
+
+"We haven't even come to the ice yet," she sighed, "and you pass from
+high politics to flagrant personalities. Are you a sensationalist, Mr.
+Lutchester?"
+
+"Not in the least," he protested. "I simply asked you an extremely
+important question quite calmly."
+
+"It isn't a question that should be asked calmly," she objected.
+
+"I have immense self-control," he told her, "but if you'd like me to
+abandon it--"
+
+"For heaven's sake, no!" she interrupted. "Tell me more about Mr.
+Fischer."
+
+"You won't forget to answer my little question later on, will you?" he
+begged. "To proceed, then. I spent some little time this afternoon with
+your chief of the police here, and I fancy that the person you speak of
+is becoming a little too blatant even for a broad-minded country like
+this. He belongs to an informal company of wealthy sympathisers with
+Germany, who propose to start a campaign of destruction at all the
+factories manufacturing munitions for the Allies. They have put
+aside--I believe it is several million dollars, for purposes of
+bribery. They don't seem to realise, as my friend pointed out to me
+this afternoon, that the days for this sort of thing in New York have
+passed. Some of them will be in prison before they know where they
+are."
+
+"Exactly why did you come to America?" she asked, a little abruptly.
+
+"To meet Nikasti and to look after Fischer."
+
+"Well, you seem to have done that pretty effectually!"
+
+"Also," he went on calmly, "to keep an eye upon you."
+
+"Professionally?"
+
+"You ask me to give away too many secrets," he whispered, leaning
+towards her.
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"Tell me some more about your little adventure in Fifth Avenue?" she
+begged.
+
+He smiled grimly.
+
+"You wouldn't believe me," he reminded her, "but it really was one of
+Fischer's little jokes. It very nearly came off, too. As a matter of
+fact," he went on, "Fischer isn't really clever. He is too obstinate,
+too convinced in his own mind that things must go the way he wants them
+to, that Fate is the servant of his will. It's a sort of national
+trait, you know, very much like the way we English bury our heads in
+the sand when we hear unpleasant truths. The last thing Fischer wants
+is advertisement, and yet he goes to some of his Fourteenth Street
+friends and unearths a popular desperado to get rid of me. The fellow
+happens most unexpectedly to fail, and now Fischer has to face a good
+many awkward questions and a good deal of notoriety. No, I don't think
+Fischer is really clever."
+
+Pamela sighed.
+
+"In that case, I suppose I shall have to say 'No' to him," she decided.
+"After waiting all this time, I couldn't bear to be married to a fool."
+
+"You won't be," he assured her cheerfully.
+
+"More British arrogance," she murmured. "Now see what's going to happen
+to us!"
+
+A tall, elderly man, with smooth white hair plastered over his
+forehead, very precisely dressed, and with a gait so careful as to be
+almost mincing, was approaching their table. Pamela held out her hands.
+
+"My dear uncle!" she exclaimed. "And I thought that you and aunt never
+dined at restaurants!"
+
+Mr. Hastings stood with his fingers resting lightly upon the table. He
+glanced at Lutchester without apparent recognition.
+
+"You remember Mr. Lutchester?" Pamela murmured.
+
+Mr. Hastings' manner lacked the true American cordiality, but he
+hastened to extend his hand.
+
+"Of course!" he declared. "I was not fortunate enough, however, to see
+much of you the other evening, Mr. Lutchester. We have several mutual
+friends whom I should be glad to hear about."
+
+"I shall pay my respects to Mrs. Hastings, if I may, very shortly,"
+Lutchester promised.
+
+"Are you with friends here, uncle?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"We are the guests of Mr. Oscar Fischer," the Senator announced.
+
+Pamela raised her eyebrows.
+
+"So you know Mr. Fischer, uncle?"
+
+"Naturally," Mr. Hastings replied, with some dignity. "Oscar Fischer is
+one of the most important men in the State which I represent. He is a
+man of great wealth and industry and immense influence."
+
+Pamela made a little grimace. Her uncle noticed it and frowned.
+
+"He has just been telling us of his voyage with you, Pamela. Perhaps,
+if Mr. Lutchester can spare you," he went on, with a little bow across
+the table, "you will come and take your coffee with us. Your aunt is
+leaving for Washington, probably to-morrow, and wishes to arrange for
+you to travel with her. Mr. Lutchester may also, perhaps, give us the
+pleasure of his company for a few minutes," he added, after a slight
+but obvious pause.
+
+"Thank you," Pamela answered quickly, "I am Mr. Lutchester's guest this
+evening. If you are still here, I shall love to come and speak to aunt
+for a moment later on. If not, I will ring up to-morrow morning."
+
+The bland, almost episcopal serenity of Senator Hastings' face was
+somewhat disturbed. It was obvious that the situation displeased him.
+
+"I think, Pamela," he said, "that you had better come and speak to your
+aunt before you leave."
+
+His bow to Lutchester was the bow of a politician to an adversary. He
+made his way back in leisurely fashion to the table from which he had
+come, exchanging a few words with many acquaintances. Pamela watched
+him with a twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"I am becoming so unpopular," she murmured. "I can read in my uncle's
+tone that my aunt and he disapprove of our dining together here. And as
+for Mr. Fischer. I'm afraid he'll break off our prospective alliance."
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"Prospective is the only word to use," he observed. "By the bye, are
+you particularly fond of your uncle?"
+
+"Not riotously," she admitted. "He has been kind to me once or twice,
+but he's rather a starchy old person."
+
+"In that case," Lutchester decided, "we won't interfere."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+Fischer had by no means the appearance of a discomfited man that
+evening, when some time later Pamela and Lutchester approached the
+little group of which he seemed, somehow, to have become the central
+figure. It was a small party, but, in its way, a distinguished one.
+Pamela's aunt was a member of an historic American family, and a woman
+of great social position, not only in New York but in Washington
+itself. Of the remaining guests, one was a financial magnate of
+world-wide fame, and the other, Senator Joyce, a politician of such
+eminence that his name was freely mentioned as a possible future
+president. Mrs. Hastings greeted Pamela and her escort without
+enthusiasm.
+
+"My dear child," she exclaimed, "how extraordinary to find you here!"
+
+"Is it?" Pamela observed indifferently. "You know Mr. Lutchester, don't
+you, aunt?"
+
+Mrs. Hastings remembered her late dinner guest, but her recognition was
+icy and barely polite. She turned away at once and resumed her
+conversation with Fischer. Lutchester was not introduced to either of
+the other members of the party. He laid his hand on the back of an
+empty chair and turned it round for Pamela, but she stopped him with a
+word of thanks. Something had gone from her own naturally pleasant
+tone. She held her hand higher, even, than her aunt's, as she turned a
+little insistently towards her.
+
+"So sorry, aunt," she announced, "but we are going now. Good night!"
+
+Mrs. Hastings disapproved.
+
+"We have seen nothing of you yet, Pamela," she said stiffly. "You had
+better stay with us and we will drop you on our way home."
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"I am coming with you to-morrow, you know," she reminded her aunt.
+"To-night I am Mr. Lutchester's guest and he will see me home."
+
+Mrs. Hastings drew her niece a little closer to her.
+
+"Is this part of your European manners, Pamela?" she whispered, "that
+you dine alone in a restaurant with an acquaintance? Let me tell you
+frankly that I dislike the idea most heartily. My chaperonage is always
+at your service, and any girl of your age in America would be delighted
+to avail herself of it."
+
+"It is very kind of you, aunt," Pamela replied, "but in a general way I
+finished with chaperons long ago."
+
+"Where is Jimmy?" Mrs. Hastings inquired.
+
+"He was coming with us to-night," Pamela explained, "but I asked him
+particularly to stay away. I have seen so little of Mr. Lutchester
+since he arrived, and I want to talk to him."
+
+The financial magnate awoke from a comatose inertia and suddenly
+gripped Lutchester by the hand.
+
+"Lutchester," he repeated to himself. "I thought I knew your face.
+Stayed with your uncle down at Monte Carlo once. You came there for a
+week."
+
+Lutchester acknowledged his recollection of the fact and the two men
+exchanged a few commonplace remarks. Mrs. Hastings took the opportunity
+to try and induce Pamela to converse with Fischer.
+
+"We have all been so interested to-night," she said, "in hearing what
+Mr. Fischer has to say about the situation on the other side."
+
+Pamela was primed for combat.
+
+"Has Mr. Fischer been telling you fairy tales?" she laughed.
+
+"Fairy tales?" her aunt repeated severely. "I don't understand."
+
+Fischer's steel grey eyes flashed behind his spectacles.
+
+"I'm afraid that Miss Van Teyl's prejudices," he observed bitterly,
+"are very firmly fixed."
+
+"Then she is no true American," Mrs. Hastings pronounced didactically.
+
+"Oh, I can assure you that I am not prejudiced," Pamela declared,
+"only, you see, I, too, have just arrived from the other side, and I
+have been able to use my own eyes and judgment. If there is any
+prejudice in the matter, why should it not come from Mr. Fischer? He
+has the very good excuse of his German birth."
+
+"Mr. Fischer is an American citizen," Mrs. Hastings reminded her niece,
+"and personally, I think that the American of German birth is one of
+the most loyal and long-suffering persons I know. I cannot say as much
+for the English people who are living over here. And as to fairy
+stories--"
+
+Pamela intervened, turning towards Fischer with a little laugh.
+
+"Oh, he can't even deny those! What about the great German victory in
+the North Sea, Mr. Fischer? Do you happen to have seen the latest
+telegrams?"
+
+"Our first reports were perhaps a little too glowing," Mr. Fischer
+acknowledged. "That, under the circumstances, is, I think, only
+natural. But the facts remain that the invincible English and the
+untried German fleets have met, to the advantage of the German."
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"I cannot even allow that," she objected. "The advantage, if there was
+any, rested on the other side. But I just want you to remember what we
+were told in that first wonderful outpouring of fabricated news--that
+the naval supremacy of England was gone for ever, that the freedom of
+the seas was assured, that German merchant vessels were steaming home
+from all directions! No, Mr. Fischer! Between ourselves, I think that
+your cause needs a few fairy stories, and I look upon you as one of the
+greatest experts in the world when it comes to concocting them."
+
+Fischer, who had risen to his feet half way through Pamela's speech,
+was obviously a little taken aback by her direct attack. Mrs. Hastings
+took no pains to conceal her annoyance.
+
+"For a young girl of your age, Pamela," she said sternly, "I consider
+that you express your opinions far too freely. Your attitude, too, is
+unjustifiable."
+
+"Ah, well, you see, I am a little prejudiced against Mr. Fischer,"
+Pamela laughed, turning towards him. "He happened to defeat one of my
+pet schemes."
+
+"But I am ready to further your dearest one," he reminded her, dropping
+his voice, and leading her a little on one side. "What about our
+alliance?"
+
+"You scarcely need my aid," she observed, with a shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+He remonstrated vigorously. There was a revived hopefulness in his
+tone. Perhaps, after all, here was the secret of her displeasure with
+him.
+
+"You wonder, perhaps, to see me with your uncle. I give you my word
+that it is a dinner of courtesy only. I give you my word that I have
+not opened my lips on political matters. I have been waiting for your
+answer."
+
+"I have lost faith in you," she told him calmly. "I am not even certain
+that you possess the authority you spoke of."
+
+"If that is all," he replied eagerly, "you shall see it with your own
+eyes. You are staying with your uncle and aunt in Washington, are you
+not? I shall call upon you immediately I arrive, and bring it with me."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Well, that remains a challenge, then, Mr. Fischer. And now, if you are
+quite ready," she added, turning to Lutchester.... "Good-by,
+everybody!"
+
+"Aren't your ears burning?" Pamela asked, after Lutchester had handed
+her into a taxicab and taken his place by her side. "I can absolutely
+feel them talking about us."
+
+"I seem to be most regrettably unpopular," Lutchester remarked.
+
+"Even now I am puzzled about that," Pamela confessed, "but you see my
+aunt considers herself the arbitress of what is right or wrong in
+social matters, and she is exceedingly narrow-minded. In her eyes it is
+no doubt a greater misdemeanour for me to have dined at the
+Ritz-Carlton alone with you, than if I had conspired against the
+Government."
+
+"And this, I thought, was the land of freedom for your sex!"
+
+"Ah, but my aunt is rather an exception," Pamela reminded him. "The one
+thing I cannot understand, however, is that she should have allowed
+herself to be seen dining with Mr. Oscar Fischer at the Ritz-Carlton. I
+should have thought that would have been almost as heinous to her as my
+own little slip from grace."
+
+"Is your aunt by way of being interested in politics?" Lutchester
+inquired.
+
+"Not in a general way," Pamela replied, "but she is intensely
+ambitious, and she'd give her soul if Uncle Theodore could get a
+nomination for the Presidency."
+
+"Perhaps she is taking up the German-American cause, then," Lutchester
+suggested. "It is a possible platform, at any rate."
+
+"I foresee a new party," Pamela murmured thoughtfully. "Now I come to
+think of it, Mr. Elsworthy, the fat old gentleman who knew your uncle,
+is very pro-German."
+
+He leaned towards her.
+
+"We have had enough politics," he insisted. "There is the other thing.
+Couldn't I have my answer?"
+
+She let him take her fingers. In the cool darkness through which they
+were rushing her face seemed white, her head was a little averted. He
+tried to draw her to him, but she was unyielding.
+
+"Please not," she begged. "I like you--and I'm glad I like you," she
+added, "but I don't feel certain about anything. Couldn't we be just
+friends a little longer?"
+
+"It must be as you say, but I am horribly in love with you," he
+confessed. "That may sound rather a bald way of saying so, but it's the
+truth, Pamela, dear."
+
+His clasp upon her fingers was tightened. She turned towards him. Her
+expression was serious but delightful.
+
+"Well, let me tell you this much, at least," she confided. "I have
+never before in my life been so glad to hear any one say so.... And
+here we are at home, and there's Jimmy on the doorstep. What is it,
+Jimmy," she asked, waving her hand.
+
+He came down towards her in a state of great excitement.
+
+"Say, we've had to open up the office again!" he exclaimed. "The
+telegrams are rolling in now. That so-called German naval victory was a
+fake. The Britishers came out right on top. You know you stand to net at
+least half a million, Mr. Lutchester? The worst of it is I have another
+client who's going to lose it."
+
+Pamela shook her head at Lutchester.
+
+"The possibility of increased responsibilities," he whispered. "A
+married man needs something to fall back upon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+The offices of Messrs. Neville, Brooks, and Van Teyl were the scene of
+something like pandemonium. Van Teyl himself, bathed in perspiration,
+rushed into his room for the twentieth time. He almost flung the
+newspaper man who was waiting for him through the door.
+
+"No, we don't know a darned thing," he declared. "We've no special
+information. The only reason we're up to our neck in Anglo-French is
+because we've two big clients dealing."
+
+"It's just a few personal notes about those clients we'd like to
+handle."
+
+"Oh, get out as quick as you can!" Van Teyl snapped. "This isn't a
+bucket shop or a pool room. The names of our clients concerns ourselves
+only."
+
+"What do you think Anglo-French are going to do, Mr. Van Teyl?"
+
+"I can't tell," was the prompt answer, "but I can tell what's going to
+happen if you don't clear out."
+
+The newspaper man took a hurried leave. Van Teyl seized the telephone
+receiver, only to put it down with a little shout of relief as the door
+opened and Lutchester entered.
+
+"Thank God!" he exclaimed. "Why, I've been ringing you up for an hour
+and a half."
+
+"Sorry," Lutchester replied, "I was down at the barber's the first time
+you got through, and then I had some cables to send off."
+
+"Look here," Van Teyl continued, gripping him by the shoulder, "is six
+hundred and forty thousand dollars, or thereabouts, profit enough for
+you on your Anglo-French?"
+
+"It sounds adequate," Lutchester confessed, laying his hat and cane
+carefully upon the table and drawing up an easy-chair. "How much is Mr.
+Fischer going to lose?"
+
+"God knows! If you allow me to sell at the present moment, you'll ease
+the market, and he'll lose about what you make."
+
+"And if I decide to hold my Anglo-French?"
+
+"You'll have to provide us with about a couple of million dollars," Van
+Teyl replied, "and I should think you would pretty well break Fischer
+for a time. Frankly, he's an important client, and we don't want him
+broken, even temporarily."
+
+"What do you want me to do, then?"
+
+"Give us authority to sell," Van Teyl begged. "Can't you hear them
+yapping about in the office outside? They're round me all the time like
+a pack of hounds. Honestly, if I don't sell some Anglo-French before
+lunch-time to-day, they look like wrecking the office."
+
+Lutchester knocked the end of a cigarette thoughtfully against the side
+of his chair.
+
+"All right," he decided, "I don't want you to suffer any inconvenience.
+Besides, I am going to Washington this afternoon. You can keep on
+selling as long as the market's steady. Directly it sags, hold off. If
+necessary, even buy a few more. You understand me? Don't sell a single
+block under to-day's price. Keep the market at that figure. It's an
+easy job, because next week Anglo-French will go up again."
+
+Van Teyl was moved to a rare flash of admiration.
+
+"You're a cool hand, Lutchester," he declared, "considering you're not
+a business man."
+
+"Fischer's the man who'll need to keep cool," Lutchester remarked,
+lighting his cigarette. "What about a little lunch?"
+
+The stockbroker scarcely heard him. He had struck a bell, and the
+office seemed suddenly filled with clerks. Van Teyl's words were
+incoherent--a string of strange directions, punctuated by slang which
+was, so far as Lutchester was concerned, unintelligible. The whole
+place seemed to wake into a clamour of telephone bells, shouts, the
+clanging and opening of the lift gates, and the hurried tramp of
+footsteps in the corridors outside. Lutchester rose to his feet. He was
+looking very comfortable and matter-of-fact in his grey tweed suit and
+soft felt hat.
+
+"Perhaps," he observed pleasantly, "I am out of place here. Drop me a
+line and let me know how things are going to the Hotel Capitol at
+Washington."
+
+"That's all right," Van Teyl promised. "I'll get you on the
+long-distance 'phone. I was coming myself with Pamela for a few days,
+but this little deal of yours has set things buzzing.... Say, who's
+that?"
+
+The door opened, and Fischer paused upon the threshold. Certainly, of
+all the people concerned, the two speculators themselves seemed the
+least moved by the excitement they were causing. Fischer was dressed
+with his usual spick-and-span neatness, and his appearance betrayed no
+sign of flurry or excitement. He nodded grimly to Lutchester.
+
+"My congratulations," he said. "You seem to have rigged the Press here
+to some purpose."
+
+Lutchester raised his eyebrows.
+
+"I don't even know a newspaper man in New York," he declared.
+
+The newcomer gave vent to a little gesture of derision.
+
+"Then you've some very clever friends! You'd better make the most of
+their offices. The German version of the naval battle will be confirmed
+and amplified within twenty-four hours, and then your Anglo-French will
+touch mud."
+
+"If that is your idea," Lutchester remarked suavely, "why buy now? Why
+not wait till next week? Come," he went on, "I will have a little
+flutter with you, if you like, Fischer. I will bet you five thousand
+dollars, and Van Teyl here shall hold the stakes, that a week hence
+to-day Anglo-French stand higher than they do at this moment."
+
+Fischer hesitated. Then he turned away.
+
+"I am not a sportsman, Mr. Lutchester," he said.
+
+Lutchester brushed away a little dust from his coat sleeve.
+
+"No," he murmured, "I agree with you. Good morning!"
+
+Lutchester walked out into the sun-baked streets, and with his absence
+Fischer abandoned his almost unnatural calm. He strode up and down the
+room, fuming with rage. At every fresh click of the tape machine, he
+snatched at the printed slip eagerly and threw it away with an oath. No
+one took any notice of him. Van Teyl rushed in and out, telephones
+clanged, perspiring clerks dashed in with copies of contracts to add to
+the small pile upon the desk. There came a quiet moment presently. Van
+Teyl wiped the perspiration from his forehead and drank a tumblerful of
+water.
+
+"Fischer," he asked, "what made you go into this so big? You must have
+known there was always the risk of your wireless report beating it up a
+little too tall."
+
+"It wasn't our report at all that I went by," Fischer confessed
+gloomily. "It was the English Admiralty announcement that did it. Can
+you conceive," he went on, striking the table with his fist, "any
+nation at war, with a grain of common sense or an ounce of
+self-respect, issuing a statement like that?--an apology for a defeat
+which, damn it all, never happened! Say the thing was a drawn battle,
+which is about what it really was. It didn't suit the Germans to fight
+it to a finish. They'd everything to lose and little to gain. So in
+effect they left the Britishers there and passed back behind their own
+minefield. So far as regards reports, that was victory enough for any
+one except those muddle-headed civilians at Whitehall. They deceived
+the world with that infernal bulletin, and incidentally me. It was on
+that statement I gave you my orders, not on ours."
+
+"It's a damned unfortunate business!" Van Teyl sighed. "You're only
+half way out yet, and it's cost you nearly three hundred thousand."
+
+A dull spot of purple colour burned in Fischer's cheeks. His upper lip
+was drawn in, his appearance for a moment was repulsive.
+
+"It isn't the money I mind," he muttered. "It's Lutchester."
+
+Van Teyl was discreetly silent. Fischer seemed to read his thoughts. He
+leaned across the table.
+
+"A wonderful fellow, your friend Lutchester," he sneered. "An Admirable
+Crichton of finance and diplomacy and love-making, eh? But the end
+isn't just yet. I promise you one thing, James Van Teyl. He isn't going
+to marry your sister."
+
+"I'd a damned sight sooner she married him than you!" Van Teyl blazed
+out.
+
+Fischer was taken aback. He had held for so long the upper hand with
+this young man that for the moment he had forgotten that circumstances
+were changed between them. Van Teyl rose to his feet. The bonds of the
+last few months had snapped. He spoke like a free man.
+
+"Look here, Fischer," he said, "you've had me practically in your power
+for the best part of a year, but now I'm through with you. I'm out of
+your debt, no thanks to you, and I'm going to keep out. I am working on
+your business as hard as though you were my own brother, and I'll go on
+doing it. I'll get you out of this mess as well as I can, and after
+that you can take your damned business where you please."
+
+"So that's it, is it?" Fischer scoffed. "A rich brother-in-law coming
+along, eh? ... No, don't do that," stepping quickly backwards as Van
+Teyl's fist shot out.
+
+"Then keep my sister's name out of this conversation," Van Teyl
+insisted. "If you are wise, you'll clear out altogether. They're at it
+again."
+
+Fischer, however, glanced at the clock and remained. At the next lull,
+he hung down the tape and turned to his companion.
+
+"Say, there's no use quarrelling, James," he declared. "I'm going to
+leave you to it now. Guess I said a little more than I meant to, but I
+tell you I hate that fellow Lutchester. I hate him just as though I
+were the typical German and he were the typical Britisher, and there
+was nothing but a sea of hate between us. Shake hands, Jim."
+
+Van Teyl obeyed without enthusiasm. Fischer drew a chair to the table
+and wrote out a cheque, which he passed across.
+
+"I'll drop into the bank and let them know about this," he said. "You
+can make up accounts and let me hear how the balance stands. I'll wipe
+it out by return, whatever it is."
+
+Fischer passed out of the offices a few minutes later, followed by many
+curious eyes, and stepped into his automobile. A young man who had
+brushed against him pushed a note into his hand. Fischer opened it as
+his car swung slowly through the traffic:--
+
+Guards at all Connecticut factories doubled. O'Hagan caught last night
+in precincts of small arms factory. Was taken alive, disobeying orders.
+Be careful.
+
+Fischer tore the note into small pieces. His face was grimmer than ever
+as he leaned back amongst the cushions. There were evil things awaiting
+him outside Wall Street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+Lutchester breathed the air of Washington and felt almost homesick. The
+stateliness of the city, its sedate and quiescent air after the turmoil
+of New York, impressed him profoundly. Everywhere its diplomatic
+associations made themselves felt. Congress was in session, and the
+faces of the men whom he met continually in the hotels and restaurants
+seemed to him some index of the world power which flung its
+far-reaching arms from beneath the Capitol dome.
+
+One afternoon a few days after his arrival he called at the Hastings'
+house, a great Colonial mansion within a stone's throw of his own
+headquarters. The mention of his name, however, seemed to chill all the
+hospitality out of the smiling face of the southern butler who answered
+his ring. Miss Van Teyl was out, and from the man's manner it was
+obvious that Miss Van Teyl would continue to be out for a very long
+time. Lutchester retraced his steps to the British Embassy, where he
+had spent most of the morning, and made his way to the sitting-room of
+one of the secretaries. The Honourable Philip Downing, who was eagerly
+waiting for a cable recalling him to take up a promised commission,
+welcomed him heartily.
+
+"Things are slack here to-day, old fellow. Let's go out to the Country
+Club and have a few sets of tennis or a game of golf, whichever you
+prefer," he suggested. "I've done my little lot till the evening."
+
+"Show on to-night, isn't there?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+"Just a reception. You're going to put in an appearance?"
+
+"I fancy so. Have you got your list of guests handy?"
+
+The young man dived into a drawer and produced a few typewritten
+sheets.
+
+"Alphabetical list of acceptances, with here and there a few personal
+notes," he pointed out, with an air of self-satisfaction. "I go through
+this list with the chief while he's changing for dinner."
+
+Lutchester ran his forefinger down the list.
+
+"Senator Theodore and Mrs. Hastings," he quoted. "By the bye, they have
+a niece staying with them."
+
+"Want a card for her?" the Honourable Philip inquired with a grin.
+
+"I should like it sent off this moment," Lutchester replied.
+
+The young man took a square, gilt-edged card from a drawer by his side,
+filled it out at Lutchester's dictation, rang the bell, and dispatched
+it by special messenger.
+
+"I've got my little buzzer outside," he observed. "We'll make tracks
+for the club, if you're ready."
+
+The two men played several sets of tennis and afterwards lounged in two
+wicker chairs, underneath a gigantic plane tree in a corner of the
+lawn. The place was crowded, and Philip Downing was an excellent
+showman.
+
+"Washington," he explained, "has never been so divided into opposite
+camps, and this is almost the only common meeting ground. Every one has
+to come here, of course. The German Staff play tennis and the Austrians
+all go in for polo. Here comes Ziduski. He's most fearfully popular
+with the ladies here--does us a lot of harm, they say. He's a great
+sticker for etiquette. He used to nod and call me Phil. Now you watch.
+He'll bow from his waist, as though he had corsets on. As a matter of
+fact, he's a good sportsman."
+
+Count Ziduski's bow was stiff enough but his intention was obvious. He
+stopped before the two men, exchanged a somewhat stilted greeting with
+Philip Downing, and turned to Lutchester.
+
+"I believe," he said, "that I have the honour of addressing Mr.
+Lutchester?"
+
+Lutchester rose to his feet.
+
+"That is my name," he admitted.
+
+"We have met in Rome, I think, and in Paris," the Count reminded him.
+"If I might beg for the favour of a few moments' conversation with
+you."
+
+The two men strolled away together. The Count plunged at once into the
+middle of things.
+
+"It is you, sir, I believe, whom I have to thank for the abrupt
+departure of Mademoiselle Sonia from New York?"
+
+"Quite true," Lutchester admitted.
+
+"Under different circumstances," the Count proceeded, "I might regard
+such interference in my affairs in a different manner. Here, of course,
+that is impossible. I speak to you out of regard for the lady in
+question. You appear in some mysterious manner to have discovered the
+fact that she was in the habit of bringing entirely unimportant and
+non-political messages from dear friends in France."
+
+"Mademoiselle Sonia," Lutchester said calmly, "had for a brief space of
+time forgotten herself. She was engaged in carrying out espionage work
+on your behalf. I believe I may say that she will do so no more."
+
+The Count was a man of medium height, thin, with complexion absolutely
+colourless, and deep-set, tired eyes. At this moment, however, he
+seemed endowed with the spirit of a new virility. The cane which he
+grasped might have been a dagger. His smooth tones nursed a threat.
+
+"Mr. Lutchester," he declared, "if harm should come to her through your
+information, I swear to God that you shall pay!"
+
+Lutchester's manner was mild and unprovocative.
+
+"Count," he replied, "we make no war upon women. Sonia has repented,
+and the knowledge which I have of her misdeeds will be shared by no
+one. She has gone back to her country to work for the Red Cross there.
+So far as I am concerned, that is the end."
+
+The two men walked a few steps further in unbroken silence. Then the
+Count raised his hat.
+
+"Mr. Lutchester," he said, "yours is the reply of an honourable enemy.
+I might have trusted you, but Sonia is half of my life. I offer you my
+thanks."
+
+He strolled away, and Lutchester rejoined his young friend.
+
+"The lion and the lamb seem to have parted safely!" the latter
+exclaimed. "Now sit by my side and I will show you interesting things.
+Those four irreproachable young men over there in tennis flannels are
+all from the German Embassy. The two elder ones behind are Austrians.
+All those women are the wives of Senators who sympathise with Germany.
+Their husbands look like it, don't they? To-day they have an addition
+to their ranks--the thin, elderly man there, whose clothes were
+evidently made in London. That's Senator Hastings. He is a personal
+friend of the President. Jove, what a beautiful girl with Mrs.
+Hastings!"
+
+"That," Lutchester told him, "is the young lady to whom you have just
+sent a card of invitation for to-night."
+
+"Then here's hoping that she comes," Philip Downing observed, finishing
+his glass of mint julep. "Is she a pal of yours?"
+
+"Yes, I know her," Lutchester admitted.
+
+"Let's go and butt in, then," Downing suggested. "I love breaking up
+these little gatherings. You'll see them all stiffen when we come near.
+I hope they haven't got hold of Hastings, though."
+
+The two men rose to their feet and crossed the lawn. Fischer, who had
+suddenly appeared in the background, whispered something in Mrs.
+Hastings' ear. She swung around to Pamela, a second too late. Pamela,
+with a word of excuse to the young man with whom she was talking,
+stepped away from the circle and held out her hand to Lutchester.
+
+"So you have really come to Washington!" she exclaimed.
+
+"As a rescuer," Lutchester replied. "I feel that I have a mission. We
+cannot afford to lose your sympathies. May I introduce Philip Downing?"
+
+Pamela shook hands with the young man and took her place between them.
+
+"I've been envying you your seat under the tree," she said. "Couldn't
+we go there for a few moments?"
+
+Mrs. Hastings detached herself and approached them. She received Philip
+Downing's bow cordially, and she was almost civil to Lutchester.
+
+"I can't have my niece taken away," she protested. "We are just going
+in to tea, Pamela."
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"I am going to sit under that tree with Mr. Lutchester and Mr.
+Downing," she declared. "Tea doesn't attract me in the least, and that
+tree does."
+
+Mrs. Hastings accepted defeat with a somewhat cynical gracefulness. She
+closed her lorgnette with a little snap.
+
+"You leave us all desolated, my dear Pamela," she said. "You remind me
+of what your poor dear father used to say--'Almost any one could live
+with Pamela if she always had her own way.'"
+
+Pamela laughed as she strolled across the lawn.
+
+"Aren't one's relatives trying!" she murmured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+
+Philip Downing very soon justified the profession to which he belonged
+by strolling off with some excuse about paying his respects to some
+acquaintances. Pamela and Lutchester immediately dropped the somewhat
+frivolous tone of their conversation.
+
+"You know that things are moving with our friend Fischer?" she began.
+
+"I gathered so," Lutchester assented.
+
+"His scheme is growing into shape," she went on. "You know what
+wonderful people his friends are for organising. Well, they are going
+to start a society all through the States and nominate for its
+president--Uncle Theodore."
+
+"Will they have any show at all?" Lutchester asked curiously.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Who can tell? The German-Americans are very powerful indeed all
+through the West, and then the pacifists will join them. You see, I
+believe that although the soul of the country is with the Allies,
+England is the most tactless country in the world. She is always giving
+little pinpricks to the Government over here, either about maritime law
+or one thing or another. Then all those articles in the papers about
+America being too proud to fight, the sneering tone of some, even, of
+the leading reviews, did a lot of harm. Uncle Theodore is going to
+stand for what they call the true neutrality. That is to say, no
+munitions, no help for either side."
+
+"Well, I don't know anything about American politics," Lutchester
+confessed, "but I shouldn't think he'd have an earthly chance."
+
+"Money is immensely powerful," she went on reflectively, "and many of
+the great money interests of the country are controlled by
+German-Americans. Mr. Fischer has almost thrown me over politically,
+but Uncle Theodore is crazy about the idea of a German pledge to
+protect America against Japan. That is going to be the great argument
+which he will keep up his sleeve until after the nomination."
+
+"Fischer's trump card," Lutchester observed. "He hasn't shown you a
+certain autograph letter yet, I suppose?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"He may have shown it to Uncle Theodore. I'm afraid he doesn't mean to
+approach me again. He seems to have completely changed his attitude
+towards me since the night he saw us at the Ritz-Carlton dining
+together. He was going to show me the letter the first day after his
+arrival in Washington. Instead of that, he has been in the house for
+hours at a time without making the slightest attempt to see me."
+
+"Faithless fellow!" Lutchester murmured. "Nothing like an Englishman,
+after all, for absolute fidelity."
+
+"Do you really think so?" Pamela inquired anxiously. "Do you think I
+should be safe in trusting my heart and future to an Englishman?"
+
+"To one particular Englishman, yes!" was the firm reply. "I was rather
+hoping you might have made up your mind."
+
+"Too many things to think about," she laughed. "How long are you going
+to stay in Washington?"
+
+"A few hours or days or weeks--until I have finished the work that
+brought me here."
+
+"And what exactly is that?"
+
+"You ask me lightly," he replied, "but, if you are willing, I have
+decided to take you into my confidence. Our friend Nikasti will be here
+to-morrow. He was to have sailed for Japan yesterday, but he has
+postponed his voyage for a few days. Do you know much about the
+Japanese, Miss Pamela?"
+
+"Very little," she acknowledged.
+
+"Well, I will tell you one thing. They are not very good at forgiving.
+There was only one way I could deal with Nikasti in New York, and it
+was a brutal way. I have seen him twice since. He wouldn't look me in
+the eyes. I know what that means. He hates me. In a sense I don't
+believe he would allow that to interfere in any way with his mission.
+In another sense it would. The Allies, above all things, have need of
+Japan. We want Japan and America to be friends. We don't want Germany
+butting in between the two. Baron Yung is a very clever man, but he is
+even more impenetrable than his countrymen generally are. Our people
+here admit that they find it difficult to progress with him very far.
+They believe that secretly he is in sympathy with Nikasti's reports--
+but you don't know about those, I suppose?"
+
+"I don't think I do," she admitted.
+
+"Nikasti was sent to England some years ago to report upon us as a
+country. Japan at that time was meditating an alliance with one of the
+great European Powers. Obviously it must be Germany or England. Nikasti
+travelled all through England, studied our social life, measured our
+weaknesses; did the same through Germany, returned to Japan, and gave
+his vote in favour of Germany. I have even seen a copy of his report.
+He laid great stress upon the absolute devotion to sport of our young
+men, and the entire absence of any patriotic sentiment or any means of
+national defence. Well, as you know, for various reasons his counsels
+were over-ridden, and Japan chose the British alliance. That was
+entirely the fault of imperfect German diplomacy. At a time like this,
+though, I cannot help thinking that some elements of his former
+distrust still remain in Nikasti's mind, and I have an idea that Baron
+Yung is, to a certain extent, a sympathiser. I've got to get at the
+bottom of this before I leave the States. If I need your help, will you
+give it me?"
+
+"If I can," she promised.
+
+They saw Mrs. Hastings' figure on the terrace, waving, and Pamela rose
+reluctantly to her feet.
+
+"I don't suppose," Lutchester continued, as they strolled across the
+lawn, "that you have very much influence with your uncle, or that he
+would listen very much to anything that you have to say, but if he is
+really in earnest about this thing, he is going to play a terribly
+dangerous game. As things are at present, he has a very pleasant and
+responsible position as the supporter and friend of very able men. With
+regard to this new movement, he may find the whole ground crumble away
+beneath his feet. Fischer is playing the game of a madman. It isn't
+only political defeat that might come to him, but disgrace--even
+dishonour."
+
+"You frighten me," Pamela confessed gravely.
+
+Lutchester sighed.
+
+"Your uncle," he went on, "is one of those thoroughly conceited,
+egotistical men who will probably listen to no one. You see, I have
+found out a little about him already. But they tell me that her social
+position means a great deal to your aunt. Neither her birth nor her
+friends could save her if Fischer drags your uncle to his chariot
+wheels."
+
+"Do you think, perhaps, that you underestimate Mr. Fischer's position
+over here?" she asked thoughtfully.
+
+"I don't think I do," he replied, "but here is something which you have
+scarcely appreciated. Fischer has had the effrontery to link himself up
+with a little crowd of Germans all through the States, who are making
+organised attempts to destroy the factories where ammunitions are being
+made for the Allies. That sort of thing, you know, would bring any one,
+however, distantly connected with it, to Sing Sing.... One moment," he
+added quickly, as Mrs. Hastings stepped forward to meet them; "the
+reception at the British Embassy to-night?"
+
+"The others are going," she said. "My aunt didn't feel she was
+sufficiently--"
+
+"We sent you a card round especially this afternoon," Lutchester
+interrupted. "You'll come?"
+
+"How nice of you! Of course I will," she promised.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+
+"Small affair, this," Downing observed, as he piloted Lutchester
+through the stately reception rooms of the Embassy. "You see, we are
+all living a sort of touchy life here, nowadays. We try to be civil to
+any of the German or Austrian lot when we meet, but of course they
+don't come to our functions. And every now and then some of those
+plaguey neutrals get the needle and they don't come, so we never know
+quite where we are, Guadopolis has been avoiding us lately, and I hear
+he was seen out at the Lakewood Country Club with Count Reszka, the
+Rumanian Minister, a few days ago. Gave the Chief quite a little
+flurry, that did."
+
+"There's an idea over in London," Lutchester remarked, "that a good
+deal of the war is being shaped in Washington nowadays."
+
+"That is the Chief's notion," Downing assented. "I know he's pining to
+talk to you, so we'll go and do the dutiful."
+
+Lutchester was welcomed as an old friend by both the Ambassador and his
+wife. The former drew him to a divan from which he could watch the
+entrance to the rooms, and sat by his side.
+
+"I am glad they sent you out, Lutchester," he said earnestly. "If ever
+a country needed watching by a man with intelligence and experience,
+this one does to-day."
+
+"Do you happen to know that fellow Oscar Fischer?" Lutchester asked.
+
+"I do, and I consider him one of the most dangerous people in the
+States for us," the Ambassador declared. "He has a great following,
+huge wealth, and, although he is not a man of culture, he doesn't go
+about his job in that bull-headed way that most of them do."
+
+"He's trying things on with Japan," Lutchester observed. "I think I
+shall manage to checkmate him there all right. But there's another
+scheme afloat that I don't follow so closely. You know Senator
+Hastings, I suppose?"
+
+The Ambassador nodded.
+
+"Senator Theodore Hastings," he repeated thoughtfully. "Yes, he's
+rather a dark horse. He is supposed to be the President's bosom friend,
+but I hear whispers that he'd give his soul for a nomination, adopt any
+cause or fight any one's battle."
+
+"That's my own idea of him," Lutchester replied, "and I think you will
+find him in the field with a pretty definite platform before long."
+
+"You think he's mixed up with Fischer?" the Ambassador inquired.
+
+"I'm sure he is," Lutchester assented. "Not only that, but they have
+something up their sleeve. I think I can guess what it is, but I'm not
+sure. How have things seemed to you here lately?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, I haven't liked the look of them," the
+Ambassador confided. "There's something afoot, and I can't be sure what
+it is. Look at the crowd to-night. Of course, all the Americans are
+here, but the diplomatic attendance has never been so thin. The
+Rumanian Minister and his wife, the Italian, the Spanish, and the
+Swedish representatives are all absent. I have just heard, too, that
+Baron von Schwerin is giving a dinner-party."
+
+Lutchester looked thoughtfully at the little stream of people. The
+Ambassador left him for a few moments to welcome some late comers. He
+returned presently and resumed his seat by Lutchester's side.
+
+"Of course," he continued, lowering his voice, "all formal
+communications between us and the enemy Embassies have ceased, but it
+has come to be an understood thing, to avoid embarrassments to our
+mutual friends, that we do not hold functions on the same day. I heard
+that Von Schwerin was giving this dinner-party, so I sent round this
+morning to inquire. The reply was that it was entirely a private one.
+One of our youngsters brought us in a list of the guests a short time
+ago. I see Hastings is one of them, and Fischer, and Rumania and Greece
+will be represented. Now Hastings was to have been here, and as a rule
+the neutrals are very punctilious."
+
+"I suppose the way that naval affair was represented didn't do us any
+good," Lutchester observed.
+
+"It did us harm, without a doubt," was the lugubrious admission.
+"Still, fortunately, these people over here are clever enough to
+understand our idiosyncrasies. I honestly think we'd rather whine about
+a defeat than glory in a victory."
+
+"Diplomatically, too," Lutchester remarked thoughtfully, "I should have
+said that things seemed all right here. The President comes in for a
+great deal of abuse in some countries. Personally, I think he has been
+wonderful."
+
+The Ambassador nodded.
+
+"You and I both know, Lutchester," he said, "that the last thing we
+want is to find America dragged into this war. Such a happening would
+be nothing more nor less than a catastrophe in itself, to say nothing
+of the internal dissensions here. On the other hand, as things are now,
+Washington is becoming a perfect arena for diplomatic chicanery, and I
+have just an instinct--I can't define it in any way--which leads me to
+believe that some fresh trouble has started within the last twenty-four
+hours."
+
+Lady Ridlingshawe motioned to her husband with her fan, and he rose at
+once to his feet.
+
+"I must leave you to look after yourself for a time, Lutchester," he
+concluded. "You'll find plenty of people here you know. Don't go until
+you've seen me again."
+
+Lutchester wandered off in search of Pamela. He found her with Mrs.
+Hastings, surrounded by a little crowd of acquaintances. Pamela waved
+her fan, and they made way for him.
+
+"Mr. Lutchester, I have been looking everywhere for you!" she
+exclaimed. "What a secretive person you are! Why couldn't you tell me
+that Lady Ridlingshawe was your cousin? I want you to take me to her,
+please, I met her sister out in Nice."
+
+She laid her fingers upon his arm, and they passed out of the little
+circle.
+
+"All bluff, of course," she murmured. "Find the quietest place you can.
+I want to talk to you."
+
+They wandered out on to a balcony where some of the younger people were
+taking ices. She leaned over the wooden rail.
+
+"Listen," she said, "I adore this atmosphere, and I am perfectly
+certain there is something going on--something exciting, I mean. You
+know that the Baron von Schwerin has a dinner-party?"
+
+"I know that," he assented.
+
+"Uncle Theodore is going with Mr. Fischer. He was invited at the last
+moment, and I understand that his presence was specially requested."
+
+Lutchester stood for a short time in an absorbed and sombre silence. In
+the deep blue twilight his face seemed to have fallen into sterner
+lines. Without a doubt he was disturbed. Pamela looked at him
+anxiously.
+
+"Is anything the matter?" she asked.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Nothing definite, only for the last few hours I have felt that things
+here are reaching a crisis. There is something going on around us,
+something which seems to fill Fischer and his friends with confidence,
+something which I don't quite understand, and which it is my business
+to understand. That is really what is worrying me."
+
+She nodded sympathetically and glanced around for a moment.
+
+"Let me tell you something," she whispered. "This evening my uncle came
+into my room just before dinner. There is a little safe built in the
+wall for jewellery. He begged for the loan of it. His library safe, he
+said, was out of order. I couldn't see what he put in, but when he had
+closed the door he stood looking at it for a moment curiously. I made
+some jesting remark about its being a treasure chest, but he answered
+me seriously. 'You are going to sleep to-night, Pamela,' he said,
+'within a few yards of a dozen or so of written words which will change
+the world's history.'"
+
+Lutchester was listening intently. There was a prolonged pause.
+
+"Well?" he asked, at last.
+
+She glanced at the little Yale key which hung from her bracelet.
+
+"Nothing! I was just wondering how I should be able to sleep through
+the night without opening the safe."
+
+"But surely your uncle didn't give you the key!"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I don't suppose he knows I have such a thing," she replied. "He has a
+master-key himself to all the safes, which he used. This is one the
+housekeeper gave me as soon as I arrived."
+
+Lutchester looked out into the darkness.
+
+"Tell me," he inquired, "is that your house--the next one to this?"
+
+"That's the old Hastings' house," she assented. "They are all family
+mansions along here."
+
+"It looks an easy place to burgle," he remarked.
+
+She laughed quietly.
+
+"I should think it would be," she admitted. "There are any quantity of
+downstair windows. We don't have burglaries in Washington, though
+--certainly not this side of the city."
+
+A little bevy of young people had found their way into the gardens.
+Lutchester waited until they had passed out of earshot before he spoke
+again.
+
+"I have reason to believe," he continued, "that in the course of their
+negotiations Fischer has deposited with your uncle a certain autograph
+letter, of which we have already spoken, making definite proposals to
+America if she will change her attitude on the neutrality question."
+
+"The written words," Pamela murmured.
+
+Lutchester's hand suddenly closed upon her wrist. She was surprised to
+find his fingers so cold, yet marvellously tenacious.
+
+"You are going to lose that key and I am going to find it," he said,
+quietly. "I am sorry--but you must."
+
+"I am going to do nothing of the sort," Pamela objected.
+
+His fingers remained like a cold vice upon her wrist. She made no
+effort to draw it away.
+
+"Listen," he said; "do you believe that the Hastings-cum-Fischer party
+is going to be the best thing that could happen for America?"
+
+"I certainly do not," she admitted.
+
+"Then do as I beg. Let me take that key from your bracelet. You shall
+have no other responsibility."
+
+"And what are you going to do with it?"
+
+"You must leave that to me," he answered. "I will tell you as much as I
+can. I stopped Nikasti sailing for Japan, but I made a mortal enemy of
+him at the same time. He has come to Washington to consult with his
+Ambassador. They are together tonight. It is my mission to convince
+them of Germany's duplicity."
+
+"I see.... And you think that these written words--?"
+
+"Give the key to me," he begged, "and ask no questions."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I should object most strongly to nocturnal disturbers of my slumbers!"
+
+It seemed to her that his frame had become tenser, his tone harder. The
+grip of his fingers was still upon her wrist.
+
+"Even your objection," he said, "might not relieve you of the
+possibility of their advent."
+
+"Don't be silly," she answered, "and, above all, don't try to threaten
+me. If you want my help--"
+
+She looked steadfastly across at the looming outline of the Hastings'
+house.
+
+"I do want your help," he assured her.
+
+"How long should you require the letter for?"
+
+"One hour," he replied.
+
+She led him down some steps on to the smooth lawns which encircled the
+house. They passed in and out of some gigantic shrubs until at last
+they came to a paling. She felt along it for a few yards.
+
+"There is a gate there," she told him. "Can you do anything with it?"
+
+It was fastened by an old lock. He lifted it off its hinges, and they
+both passed through.
+
+"Keep behind the shrubs as much as you can," she whispered. "There is a
+way into the house from the verandah here."
+
+They reached at last the shadow of the building. She paused.
+
+"Wait here for me," she continued. "I would rather enter the house
+without being seen, if I can, but it doesn't really matter. I can make
+some excuse for coming back. Don't move from where you are."
+
+She glided away from him and disappeared. Lutchester waited, standing
+well back in the shadow of the shrubs. From the Embassy came all the
+time the sound of music, occasionally even the murmur of voices; from
+the dark house in front of him, nothing. Suddenly he heard what seemed
+to be the opening of a window, and then soft footsteps. Pamela appeared
+round the corner of the building, a white, spectral figure against that
+background of deep blue darkness. She came on tiptoe, running down the
+steps and holding her skirts with both hands.
+
+"Not a soul has seen me," she whispered. "Take this quickly."
+
+She thrust an envelope into his hands, and something hard with it.
+
+"That's Uncle Theodore's seal," she explained. "He sealed up the
+envelope when he put it in there. Now come back quickly to the Embassy.
+You must please hurry with what you want to do. If I have left when you
+return, you must come back to exactly this place. That window"--she
+pointed upwards--"will be wide open. You must throw a pine cone or a
+pebble through it. I shall be waiting."
+
+"I understand," he assured her.
+
+They retraced their steps. Once more they drew near to the Embassy. The
+night had grown warmer and more windows had been opened. They reached
+the verandah. She touched his hand for a moment.
+
+"Well," she said, "I don't know whether I have been wise or not. Try
+and be back in less than an hour, if you can. I am going in alone."
+
+She left him, and Lutchester, after a few brief words with the
+Ambassador, hurried away to his task. In twenty minutes he stood before
+a tall, grey-stone building, a few blocks away, was admitted by a
+Japanese butler, and conducted, after some hesitation, into a large
+room at the back of the house. An elderly man, dressed for the evening,
+with the lapel of his coat covered with orders, was awaiting him.
+
+"I am a stranger to you, Baron," Lutchester began.
+
+"That does not matter," was the grave reply. "Ten minutes ago I had an
+urgent telephone call from our mutual friend. His Excellency told me
+that he was sending a special messenger, and begged me to give you a
+few minutes. I have left a conference of some importance, and I am
+here."
+
+"A few minutes will be enough," Lutchester promised. "I am engaged by
+the English Government upon Secret Service work. I came to America,
+following a man named Fischer. You have heard of him?"
+
+"I have heard of him," the Ambassador acknowledged.
+
+"In New York," Lutchester continued, "he met one of your countrymen,
+Prince Nikasti, a man, I may add," Lutchester went on, "for whom I have
+the highest respect and esteem, although quite openly, years ago, he
+pronounced himself unfavourably disposed towards my country. The object
+of Fischer's meeting with Prince Nikasti was to convey to him certain
+definite proposals on behalf of the German Government. They wish for a
+rapprochement with your country. They offer certain terms, confirmation
+of which Fischer brought with him in an autograph letter."
+
+There was a moment's silence. Not a word came from the man who seemed
+to have learnt the gift of sitting with absolute immovability. Even his
+eyes did not blink. He sat and waited.
+
+"The proposals made to you are plausible and deserving of
+consideration," Lutchester proceeded. "Do not think that there exists
+in my mind, or would exist in the mind of any Englishman knowing of
+them, any feeling of resentment that these proposals should have been
+received by you for consideration. Nothing in this world counts to
+those who follow the arts of diplomacy, save the simple welfare of the
+people whom he represents. It is therefore the duty of every patriot to
+examine carefully all proposals made to him likely to militate to the
+advantage of his own people. You have a letter, offering you certain
+terms to withdraw from your present alliances. Here is a letter from
+the same source, in the same handwriting, written to America. Break the
+seal yourself. It was brought to this country by Fischer, in the same
+dispatch box as yours, to be handed to some responsible person in the
+American Government. It was handed to Senator Theodore Hastings. It is
+to form part of his platform on the day when his nomination as
+President is announced. It must be back in his safe within
+three-quarters of an hour. Break the seal and read it."
+
+The Japanese held out his hand, broke the seal of the envelope, and
+read. His face remained immovable. When he had finished he looked up at
+his visitor.
+
+"I am permitted to take a copy?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly!"
+
+He touched a bell, spoke down a mouthpiece, and with almost necromantic
+swiftness two young men were in the room. A camera was dragged out, a
+little flash of light shot up to the ceiling, and the attaches vanished
+as quickly as they had come. The Ambassador replaced the document in
+its envelope, handed a stick of sealing-wax and a candle to Lutchester,
+who leaned over and resealed the envelope.
+
+"The negative?" he enquired.
+
+"Will be kept under lock and key," the Ambassador promised. "It will
+pass into the archives of Japanese history. In future we shall know."
+
+Once more he touched a bell. The door was opened. Lutchester found
+himself escorted into the street. He was back at the Embassy in time to
+meet a little stream of departing guests. Lady Ridlingshawe patted him
+on the shoulder with her fan.
+
+"Deserter!" she exclaimed, reproachfully, "Wherever have you been
+hiding?"
+
+Lutchester made some light reply and passed on. He made his way out
+into the gardens. The darkness now was a little more sombre, and he had
+to grope his way to the palings. Soon he stood before the dark outline
+of the adjoining house. In the window towards which he was making his
+way a single candle in a silver candlestick was burning. He paused
+underneath and listened. Then he took a pine cone which he had picked
+up on his way and threw it through the open window. The candle was
+withdrawn. A shadowy form leaned out.
+
+"I'm quite alone," she assured him softly. "Can you throw it in?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I think so."
+
+His first effort was successful. The seal followed, wrapped up in his
+handkerchief. A moment or two later he saw Pamela's face at the window.
+
+"Good night!" she whispered. "Quickly, please. There is still some one
+about downstairs."
+
+The light was extinguished. Lutchester made his way cautiously back,
+replaced the gate upon its hinges and reached the shelter of the Embassy,
+denuded now of guests. He found Downing in the smoking-room.
+
+"Can I get a whisky and soda?" Lutchester asked, in response to the
+latter's vociferous greeting.
+
+"Call it a highball," was the prompt reply, "and you can have as many
+as you like. Have you earned it?" he added, a little curiously.
+
+"I almost believe that I have," Lutchester assented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+
+Mr. Oscar Fischer and his friend, Senator Theodore Hastings, stood side
+by side, a week later, in the bar of one of the most fashionable of New
+York hotels. They were passing away the few minutes before Pamela and
+her aunt would be ready to join them in the dining room above.
+
+"Very little news, I fancy," Hastings remarked, glancing at the tape
+which was passing through his companion's fingers.
+
+"Nothing--of any importance," Fischer replied. "Nothing."
+
+The older man glanced searchingly at his companion, the change in whose
+tone was ominous. Fischer was standing with the tape in his hand, his
+eyes glued upon a certain paragraph. The Senator took out his
+eyeglasses and looked over his friend's shoulder.
+
+"What's this?" he demanded. "Eh?"
+
+Fischer was fighting a great battle and fighting it well.
+
+"Something wrong, apparently, with Frank Roughton," he observed; "an
+old college friend of mine. They made him Governor of----only last
+year."
+
+Hastings read the item thoughtfully.
+
+Governor Roughton this morning tendered his resignation as Governor of
+the State of----. We understand that it was at once accepted. Numerous
+arrests have taken place with reference to the great explosion at the
+Bembridge powder factory.
+
+"Looks rather fishy, that," Hastings observed thoughtfully.
+
+"I'm sorry for Roughton," Fischer declared. "He was a perfectly
+straight man, and I am sure he has done his best."
+
+"Great friend of yours?" the other asked curiously.
+
+"We were intimately acquainted," was the brief answer.
+
+The two men finished their cocktails in silence. On their way upstairs
+the Senator took his companion's arm.
+
+"Fischer," he said, "you'll forgive me if I put a certain matter to you
+plainly?"
+
+"Naturally!"
+
+"Within the last few days," Hastings proceeded, "there have been seven
+explosions or fires at various factories throughout the States. It is a
+somewhat significant circumstance," he added, after a slight pause,
+"that every one of these misfortunes has occurred at a factory where
+munitions of some sort for the Allies have been in process of
+manufacture. Shrewd men have naturally come to the conclusion that
+there is some organisation at work."
+
+"I should doubt it," Fischer replied. "You must remember that there is
+always a great risk of disasters in factories where explosives are
+being handled. It is a new thing to many of the manufacturers here,
+and it is obvious that they are not making use of all the necessary
+precautions."
+
+"I see," Hastings observed, reflectively. "So that is how you would
+explain this epidemic of disasters, eh?"
+
+"Certainly!"
+
+"At the same time, Fischer, to set my mind entirely at rest," Hastings
+continued, "I should like your assurance that you have nothing whatever
+to do with any organisation, should there be such a thing, including in
+its object the destruction of American property."
+
+"I will do more than answer your question in the direct negative," was
+the firm reply. "I will assure you that no such organisation exists."
+
+"I am relieved to hear it," Hastings confessed. "This resignation of
+Roughton, however, seems a strange thing. Most of these fires have
+occurred in his State.... Ah! there is Senator Joyce waiting for us,
+and Pamela and Mrs. Hastings."
+
+Mr. Hastings as a host was in his element. His manners and tact, which
+his enemies declared were far too perfect, were both admirably
+displayed in the smaller ways of life. He guided the conversation into
+light yet opportune subjects, and he utterly ignored the fact that
+Senator Joyce, one of the great politicians of the day, whose support
+of his nomination was already more than half promised, seemed distrait
+and a little cold. It was Pamela who quite inadvertently steered the
+conversation into a dangerous channel.
+
+"What has Governor Roughton been doing, Mr. Fischer?" she asked.
+
+There was a moment's silence. Pamela's question had fallen something
+like a bombshell amongst the little party. It was their guest who
+replied.
+
+"The matter is occupying the attention of the country very largely at
+the moment, Miss Van Teyl," he said. "It is perhaps unfortunate that
+Governor Roughton seems to have allowed his sympathies to be so clearly
+known."
+
+"He is a German by birth, is he not?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"Most decidedly not," Fischer asserted. "I was at Harvard with him."
+
+"All the same," Pamela murmured under her breath, "I think that he was
+born at Stuttgart."
+
+"He is an American citizen," Senator Joyce observed, "and has reached a
+high position here. We of the Administration may be wrong," he
+continued, "but we believe, and we think that we have a right to
+believe, that when any man of conscience and ideals takes the oath, he
+is free from all previous prejudices. He is an American citizen--
+nothing more and nothing less."
+
+"Of course, that is magnificent," Pamela declared, "but it isn't common
+sense, is it, and you haven't answered my original question yet."
+
+"I am not in a position to do so, Miss Van Teyl," Joyce replied. "The
+trouble probably is that Governor Roughton has been considered
+incompetent as so many of these disasters have taken place unhindered
+in his State."
+
+"There was a rumour," Pamela persisted, "that he was under arrest."
+
+"Quite untrue, I am sure," Fischer muttered.
+
+There was a general diversion of the conversation, but the sense of
+uneasiness remained. Pamela and Mrs. Hastings, at the conclusion of the
+little banquet, acting upon a hint from their host, made their way to
+one of the small drawing-rooms for their coffee. Left alone, the three
+men drew their chairs closer together. Joyce's fine face seemed somehow
+to have become a little harder and more unsympathetic. He sipped the
+water, which was his only beverage, and pushed away the cigars in which
+he generally indulged.
+
+"Mr. Hastings," he pronounced, "I have given the subject of supporting
+your nomination my deepest consideration. I was at one time, I must
+confess, favourably disposed towards the idea. I have changed my mind.
+I have decided to give my support to the present Administration."
+
+Fischer's face was dark with anger. He even allowed an expletive to
+escape from his lips. Hastings, however, remained master of himself.
+
+"I will not conceal from you, Mr. Joyce," he confessed, "that I am
+exceedingly disappointed. You have fully considered everything, I
+presume--our pledge, for instance, to nominate you as my successor?"
+
+"I have considered everything," Joyce replied. "The drawback in my
+mind, to be frank with you, is that I doubt whether you would receive
+sufficient support throughout the country. It is my idea," he went on,
+"although I may be wrong, of course, that the support of the
+German-Americans who, you must allow me to maintain, are an exceedingly
+unneutral part of America, will place you in an unpopular position.
+Should you succeed in getting yourself elected, which I very much
+doubt, you will be an unpopular President. I would rather wait my
+time."
+
+"You have changed your views," Fischer muttered.
+
+"To be perfectly frank with you, I have," Joyce acknowledged. "These
+outrages throughout the States are, to my mind, blatant and criminal.
+Directly or indirectly, the German-American public is responsible for
+them--indirectly, by inflammatory speeches, reckless journalism, and
+point-blank laudation of illegal acts; directly--well, here I can speak
+only from my own suspicions, so I will remain silent. But my mind is
+made up. A man in this country, as you know," he added, "need make only
+one mistake and his political future is blasted. I am not inclined to
+risk making that one mistake."
+
+Hastings sighed. He was making a brave effort to conceal a great
+disappointment.
+
+"One cannot argue with you, Mr. Joyce," he regretted. "You have come to
+a certain conclusion, and words are not likely to alter it. There is no
+one I would so dearly have loved to number amongst my supporters, but I
+see that it is a privilege for which I may not hope.... We will, if you
+are ready, Fischer, join the ladies."
+
+They rose from the table a few minutes later.
+
+Fischer, who had been eagerly watching his opportunity, drew Senator
+Joyce on one side for a moment as they passed down the crowded
+corridor.
+
+"Mr. Joyce," he said, "I have heard your decision to-night with deeper
+regret than I can express, yet more than ever it has brought home one
+truth to me. Our position towards you was a wrong one. We offered you a
+reversion when we should have offered you the thing itself."
+
+Senator Joyce swung around.
+
+"Say, Mr. Fischer, what are you getting at?" he asked bluntly.
+
+"I mean that it is Hastings and I who should have been your supporters,
+and you who should have been our candidate," Fischer suggested boldly.
+"What about it? It isn't too late."
+
+"Nothing doing, sir," was the firm reply. "Theodore Hastings may not be
+exactly my type of man, but I am not out to see him cornered like that,
+and besides, to tell you the honest truth, Mr. Fischer," he added,
+pausing at the door, "when I stand for the Presidency, I want to do so
+not on the nomination of you or your friends, or any underground
+schemers. I want the support of the real American citizen. I want to be
+free from, all outside ties and obligations. I want to stand for
+America, and America only, I not only want to be President, you see,
+but I want to be the chosen President of the right sort of people.... I
+am going to ask you to excuse me to the ladies and our host, Mr.
+Fischer," he concluded, holding out his hand. "I had a note asking me
+to visit the Attorney General, which I only received on my way here. I
+have an idea that it is about this Roughton business."
+
+Fischer returned to the others alone. Hastings was clearly disturbed at
+his guest's departure. His friend and supporter, however, affected to
+treat it lightly.
+
+"Joyce is like all these lawyers," he declared. "He is simply waiting
+to see which way the wind blows. I have come across them many times.
+They like to wait till parties are evenly balanced, till their support
+makes all the difference, and clinch their bargain then."
+
+"I should have said," Pamela remarked, "that Mr. Joyce was a man above
+that sort of thing."
+
+"Every man has his price and his weak spot," her uncle observed
+didactically. "Joyce's price is the Presidency. His weak spot is
+popular adulation. I agree with Fischer. He will probably join us
+later."
+
+Mr. Hastings was summoned to the telephone, a moment or two later. Mrs.
+Hastings sat down to write a note, and Pamela moved her place over to
+Fischer's side. His face brightened at her spontaneous movement. She
+shook her head, however, at the little compliment with which he
+welcomed her.
+
+"This afternoon," she said softly, "I met Mr. Lutchester."
+
+"Is he back in New York?" Fischer asked, frowning.
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"He told me something which I feel inclined to tell you," she
+continued, glancing into her companion's haggard face with a gleam of
+sympathy in her eyes. "You'll probably see it in the newspapers
+to-morrow morning. Governor Roughton's resignation was compulsory. He
+is under arrest."
+
+"For negligence?"
+
+"For participation," was the grave reply. "Mr. Lutchester has been down
+to--the city where these things took place. He only got back late this
+afternoon."
+
+"Lutchester again!" Fischer muttered.
+
+"You see, it's rather in his line," Pamela reminded him. "He is over
+here to superintend the production of munitions from the factories
+which are working for the British Government."
+
+"He is over here as a sort of general mischief-maker!" Fischer
+exclaimed fiercely. "Do I understand that he has been down in----?"
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"He went down with one of the heads of the New York police."
+
+She turned away, but Fischer caught at her wrist.
+
+"You know more than this!" he cried hoarsely.
+
+The agony in the man's face and tone touched her. After all, he was
+fighting for the great things. There was nothing mean about Fischer,
+nothing selfish about his lying and his crimes.
+
+"I have told you all that I can," she whispered, "but if you hurried,
+you could catch the _New York_ to-night--and I think I should advise
+you to go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+
+Fischer, on leaving his unsuccessful dinner party, drove direct to the
+residence of Mr. Max H. Bookam, in Fifth Avenue. The butler who
+admitted him looked a little blank at his inquiry.
+
+"Mr. Bookam was expected home yesterday, sir," he announced. "He has
+not arrived, however."
+
+"Has there been any telegram from him?--any news as to the cause of his
+non-return?" Fischer persisted.
+
+"I believe that Mr. Kaye, his secretary, has some information, sir,"
+the man admitted. "Perhaps you would like to see him."
+
+Fischer did not hesitate, and was conducted at once to the study in
+which Mr. Bookam was wont to indulge in various nefarious Stock
+Exchange adventures. The room was occupied on this occasion by a
+dejected-looking young man, with pasty face and gold spectacles. The
+apartment, as Fischer was quick to notice, showed signs of a strange
+disorder.
+
+"Where's Mr. Bookam?" he asked quickly.
+
+The young man walked to the door, shook it to be sure that it was
+closed, and came back again. His tone was ominous, almost dramatic.
+
+"In the State Prison at----, sir," he announced.
+
+"What for?" Fischer demanded, breathing a little thickly.
+
+"I have no certain information," the secretary replied, with a
+noncommittal air. "All I know is that I had a long-distance telephone
+to burn certain documents, but before I could do so the room and the
+house were searched by New York detectives, whose warrant it was
+useless to resist."
+
+"But what's the charge against Mr. Bookam?"
+
+"It's something to do with the disasters in----," the young man
+confided. "The Governor of the State, who is Mr. Bookam's cousin, is in
+the same trouble.... Better sit down a moment, sir. You're looking
+white."
+
+Mr. Fischer threw himself into an easy-chair. He felt like a man who
+has built a mighty piece of machinery, has set it swinging through
+space, and watches now its imminent collapse; watches some tiny but
+ghastly flaw, pregnant with disaster, growing wider and wider before
+his eyes.
+
+"What papers did the police take away with them?" he asked.
+
+"There wasn't very much for them," the secretary replied. "There was a
+list of the names of the proposed organisation which, owing to your
+very wise intervention, was never formed. There was a list of factories
+throughout the United States in which munitions are being made, with a
+black mark against those holding the most important contracts. And
+there was a letter from Governor Roughton."
+
+"Mr. Bookam hasn't drawn any cheques lately for large amounts?" Fischer
+inquired eagerly.
+
+"There are three in his private cheque-book, sir, the counterfoils of
+which are not filled in," was the somewhat dreary admission.
+
+Fischer groaned as he received the news.
+
+"Have you any idea about those cheques?" he demanded.
+
+"I am afraid," the other acknowledged, "that Mr. Bookam was not very
+discreet. I reminded him of your advice--that the money should be
+passed through Sullivan--but he didn't seem to think it worth while."
+
+"Look here, let me know the worst at once," Fischer insisted. "Do you
+believe that any one of those cheques was made payable to any of the
+men who are under arrest?"
+
+"I am afraid," the secretary declared sadly, "that the proceeds of one
+were found on the person of Ed. Swindles, intact."
+
+Fischer sat for a moment with his head buried in his hands. "That any
+man could have been such a fool. An organisation would have been a
+thousand times safer. Max Bookam was only a very worthy and industrious
+clothing manufacturer, with an intense love for the Fatherland and a
+great veneration for all her institutions. What he had done, he had
+done whole-heartedly but foolishly. He was a man who should never have
+been trusted for a moment in the game. After all, the pawns count...."
+
+Fischer took his leave and reached his hotel a little before midnight.
+Already he had begun to look over his shoulder in the street. He found
+his rooms empty with a sense of relief, marred by one little
+disappointment. Nikasti was to have been there to bid him farewell--
+Nikasti on his way back to Japan. He ascertained from the office of the
+hotel that there had been no telephone message or caller. Then he
+turned to his correspondence, some presentiment already clutching at
+his strained nerves. There was a letter in a large envelope, near the
+bottom of the pile, addressed to him in Nikasti's fine handwriting. He
+tore open the envelope, and slow horror seized him as he realised its
+contents. A long photograph unrolled itself before his eyes. The first
+few words brought confusion and horror to his sense. His brain reeled.
+This was defeat, indeed! It was a photograph of that other autograph
+letter. The one which he had given to Nikasti to carry to Japan lay--
+gross sacrilege!--about him in small pieces. There was no other line,
+no message, nothing but this damning proof of his duplicity.
+
+A kind of mental torture seized him. He fought like a caged man for
+some way out. Every sort of explanation occurred to him only to be
+rejected, every sort of subterfuge, only to be cast aside with a kind
+of ghastly contempt. He felt suddenly stripped bare. His tongue could
+serve him no more. He snatched at the telephone receiver and rang up
+the number for which he searched eagerly through the book.
+
+"Is that the office of the American Steamship Company?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What time will the _New York_ sail?"
+
+"In three-quarters of an hour. Who's speaking?"
+
+"Mr. Oscar Fischer. Keep anything you have for me."
+
+He threw down the receiver for fear of a refusal, packed a few things
+feverishly in a dressing bag, dashed the rest of his correspondence
+into his pocket, and with the bag in one hand, and an overcoat over the
+other arm, he hastened out into the street. He was obliged at first to
+board a street car. Afterwards he found a taxicab, and drove under the
+great wooden shed as the last siren was blowing. He hurried up the
+gangway, a grim, remorseful figure, a sense of defeat gnawing at his
+heart, a bitter, haunting fear still with him even when, with a shriek
+of the tugs, the great steamer swung into the river. He was leaving
+forever the work to which he had given so much of his life, leaving it
+a fugitive and dishonoured. The blaze of lights, the screaming of the
+great ferry-boats, all the triumphant, brazen noises of the mighty
+city, sounded like a requiem to him as in the darkest part of the
+promenade deck he leaned over the railing and nursed his agony, the
+supreme agony of an ambitious man--failure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+
+"What has become," Mrs. Theodore Hastings asked her niece one afternoon
+about a month later, "of your delightful friend, Mr. Lutchester?"
+
+Pamela laid down her book and looked across at her aunt with wide-open
+eyes.
+
+"Why, I thought you didn't like him, aunt?"
+
+"I cannot remember saying so, my dear," Mrs. Hastings replied. "I had
+nothing against the man himself. It was simply his attitude with regard
+to some of your uncle's plans, of which we disapproved."
+
+Pamela nodded. They were seated on the piazza of the Hastings' country
+house at Manchester.
+
+"I see!... And uncle's plans," she went on reflectively, "have become a
+little changed, haven't they?"
+
+Mrs. Hastings coughed.
+
+"There is no doubt," she admitted, "that your Uncle Theodore was
+inveigled into supporting, to a certain extent, a party whose leaders
+have shown themselves utterly irresponsible. The moment these horrible
+things began to come out, however, your uncle finally cut himself loose
+from them."
+
+"Very wise of him," Pamela murmured.
+
+"Who could have believed," Mrs. Hastings demanded, "that men like Oscar
+Fischer, Max Bookam and a dozen other well-known and prominent
+millionaires, would have stooped to encourage the destruction of American
+property and lives, simply through blind devotion to the country of their
+birth. I could understand," she went on, "both your uncle and I perfectly
+understood that their sympathies were German rather than English, but
+we shared a common belief that notwithstanding this they were Americans
+first and foremost. It was in this belief that your uncle was led into
+temporary association with them."
+
+"Bad luck," Pamela sighed. "I am afraid it hasn't done Uncle Theodore
+any good."
+
+Mrs. Hastings went on with her knitting for a moment.
+
+"My child," she said, "it has probably imperilled, if it has not
+completely ruined, one of the great hopes which your uncle and I have
+sometimes entertained. We are both of us, however, quite philosophical
+about it. Even at this moment I am convinced that if these men had
+acted with discretion, and been content to wield political influence
+rather than to have resorted to such fanatical means, they would have
+represented a great power at the next election. As things are, I admit
+that their cause is lost for the time. I believe that your uncle is
+contemplating an early visit to England. He is of the opinion that
+perhaps he has misunderstood the Allied point of view, and he is going
+to study matters at first hand."
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"I think he is very wise, aunt," she declared. "I quite expect that he
+will come back a warm advocate of the Allies. No one would have a ghost
+of a chance who went to the country here on the other ticket."
+
+"I believe that that is your uncle's point of view," Mrs. Hastings
+assented.... "Why don't you ask Mr. Lutchester down for a couple of
+days?"
+
+"If you mean it, I certainly will," Pamela agreed.
+
+"Quite incidentally," her aunt continued, "I heard the nicest possible
+things about him in Washington. Lady Ridlingshawe told me that the
+Lutchesters are one of the oldest families in England. He is a cousin
+of the Duke of Worcester, and is extraordinarily well connected in
+other directions. I must say he has a most distinguished appearance.
+A well-bred Englishman is so different from these foreigners."
+
+Pamela laid down her book and drew her writing block towards her.
+
+"I'll write and invite him down at once," she suggested.
+
+"Your uncle will be delighted," Mrs. Hastings purred....
+
+Lutchester received his invitation in New York and arrived in
+Manchester three days later. Pamela met him at the station with a
+couple of boatmen by her side.
+
+"If you wouldn't mind sailing home?" she proposed. "The house is
+practically on an island, and the tide is just right. These men will
+take your luggage."
+
+They walked down to the little dock together.
+
+Pamela talked all the time, but Lutchester was curiously tongue-tied.
+
+"You'll find Uncle Theodore, and aunt, too, most amusing," she
+confided. "It is perfectly obvious that there is nothing uncle regrets
+so much as his temporary linking up with Fischer and his friends; in
+fact, he is going to Europe almost at once--I am convinced for no other
+reason than to give him an excuse, upon his return, for blossoming out
+as a fervent supporter of the Allies."
+
+"Are you going too?" Lutchester inquired. "Shall I? Well, I am not
+really sure," she declared, as they reached the little wooden dock. "I
+suppose I shall, especially if I can find something to do. I may even
+turn nurse."
+
+"You will be able to find plenty to do," he assured her. "If nothing
+else turns up, you can help me."
+
+They stepped on to the yacht. Pamela, a radiant vision in white, with
+white flannel skirt, white jersey and tam-o'-shanter, took the helm,
+and was busy for a few moments getting clear. Afterwards she leaned
+back amongst the cushions, with Lutchester by her side.
+
+"In the agitation of missing that buoy," he reminded her, "you forgot
+to answer my last suggestion."
+
+"Is there any way in which I could help you?" she asked.
+
+"You can help me in the greatest of all ways," he replied promptly.
+"You can give me just that help which only the woman who cares can give
+to the man who cares for her, and if that isn't exciting enough," he
+went on, after a moment's pause, "well, I dare say I can find you some
+work in the censor's department."
+
+"Isn't censoring a little dull?" she murmured.
+
+"Then you choose--"
+
+Her hand slipped into his. A little breeze filled their sails at that
+moment. The wonderful blue water of the bay sparkled with a million
+gleams of sunshine. Lutchester drew a great breath of content.
+
+"That's aunt on the landing-stage, watching us through her glasses,"
+Pamela pointed out, making a feeble attempt to withdraw her hand.
+
+"It will save us the trouble," he observed, resisting her effort, "of
+explanations."
+
+Lutchester found his host and hostess unexpectedly friendly. They even
+accepted with cheerful philosophy the news that Lutchester's work in
+America was almost finished for the time, and that Pamela was to
+accompany him to Europe almost immediately. After dinner, when the two
+men were left at the table, Hastings became almost confidential.
+
+"So far as regards the sympathies of this country, Mr. Lutchester," he
+said, "the final die has been cast within the last few weeks. There has
+always been," he proceeded, "a certain irritation existing between even
+the Anglo-Saxon Americans and your country. We have fancied so often
+that you have adopted little airs of superiority towards us, and that
+your methods of stating your intentions have not always taken account
+of our own little weaknesses. Then America, you know, loves a good
+fight, and the Germans are a wonderful military people. They were
+fighting like giants whilst you in England were still slacking. But it
+is Germany herself, or rather her sons and friends, who have destroyed
+her chances for her. Fischer, for instance," he went on, fingering his
+wineglass. "I have always looked upon Oscar Fischer as a brilliant and
+far-seeing man. He was one of those who set themselves deliberately to
+win America for the Germans. A more idiotic bungle than he has made of
+things I could scarcely conceive. He has reproduced the diplomatic
+methods which have made Germany unpopular throughout the world. He has
+tried bullying, cajolery, and false-hood, and last of all he has
+plunged into crime. No German-American will henceforth ever have weight
+in the counsels of this country. I do not mind confessing," Mr.
+Hastings continued, as he himself filled his guest's glass and then his
+own, "that I myself was at one time powerfully attracted towards the
+Teuton cause. They are a nation wonderful in science, wonderful in
+warfare, with strong and admirable national characteristics. Yet they
+are going to lose this war through sheer lack of tact, for the want of
+that kindliness, that generosity of temperament, which exists and makes
+friends in nations as in individuals. The world for Germany, you know,
+and hell for her enemies!... But I am keeping you."
+
+Lutchester drank his wine and rose to his feet.
+
+"Pamela is sitting on the rocks there," Mr. Hastings observed. "I think
+that she wants to sail you over to Misery Island. We get some unearthly
+meal there at ten o'clock and come back by moonlight. It is a sort of
+torture which we always inflict upon our guests. My wife and I will
+follow in the launch."
+
+"To Misery Island!" Lutchester repeated.
+
+His host smiled as he led the way to the piazza steps. Pamela had
+already stepped into the boat, and with the help of a boatman was
+adjusting the sail. She waved her hand gaily and pointed to the level
+stretch of placid water, still faintly brilliant in the dying sunlight.
+
+"You think that we shall reach Misery Island before the tide turns?"
+she called out.
+
+Lutchester stepped lightly into the boat and took the place to which
+she pointed.
+
+"I am content," he said, "to take my chance."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Pawns Count, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pawns Count, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
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+Title: The Pawns Count
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9836]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 23, 2003]
+[Date last updated: January 1, 2006]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PAWNS COUNT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Anuradha Valsa Raj
+and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE PAWNS COUNT
+
+BY
+
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+
+1918
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+"I am for England and England only," John Lutchester, the Englishman,
+asserted.
+
+"I am for Japan and Japan only," Nikasti, the Jap, insisted.
+
+"I am for Germany first and America afterwards," Oscar Fischer, the
+German-American pronounced.
+
+"I am for America first, America only, America always," Pamela Van
+Teyl, the American girl, declared.
+
+They were all right except the German-American.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Mefiez-Vous!
+
+Taisez-Vous!
+
+Les Oreilles Ennemies Vous Ecoutent!
+
+The usual little crowd was waiting in the lobby of a fashionable London
+restaurant a few minutes before the popular luncheon hour. Pamela Van
+Teyl, a very beautiful American girl, dressed in the extreme of
+fashion, which she seemed somehow to justify, directed the attention of
+her companions to the notice affixed to the wall facing them.
+
+"Except," she declared, "for you poor dears who have been hurt, that is
+the first thing I have seen in England which makes me realise that you
+are at war."
+
+The younger of her two escorts, Captain Richard Holderness, who wore
+the uniform of a well-known cavalry regiment, glanced at the notice a
+little impatiently.
+
+"What rot it seems!" he exclaimed. "We get fed up with that sort of
+thing in France. It's always the same at every little railway station
+and every little inn. 'Mefiez-vous! Taisez-vous!' They might spare us
+over here."
+
+John Lutchester, a tall, clean-shaven man, dressed in civilian clothes,
+raised his eyeglass and read out the notice languidly.
+
+"Well, I don't know," he observed. "Some of you Service fellows--not
+the Regulars, of course--do gas a good deal when you come back. I don't
+suppose you any of you know anything, so it doesn't really matter," he
+added, glancing at his watch.
+
+"Army's full of Johnnies, who come from God knows where nowadays,"
+Holderness assented gloomily. "No wonder they can't keep their mouths
+shut."
+
+"Seems to me you need them all," Miss Pamela Van Teyl remarked with a
+smile.
+
+"Of course we do," Holderness assented, "and Heaven forbid that any of
+us Regulars should say a word against them. Jolly good stuff in them,
+too, as the Germans found out last month."
+
+"All the same," Lutchester continued, still studying the notice, "news
+does run over London like quicksilver. If you step down to the American
+bar here, for instance, you'll find that Charles is one of the
+best-informed men about the war in London. He has patrons in the Army,
+in the Navy, and in the Flying Corps, and it's astonishing how
+communicative they seem to become after the second or third cocktail."
+
+"Cocktail, mark you, Miss Van Teyl," Holderness pointed out. "We poor
+Englishmen could keep our tongues from wagging before we acquired some
+of your American habits."
+
+"The habits are all right," Pamela retorted. "It's your heads that are
+wrong."
+
+"The most valued product of your country," Lutchester murmured, "is
+more dangerous to our hearts than to our heads."
+
+She made a little grimace and turned away, holding out her hand to a
+new arrival--a tall, broad-shouldered man, with a strong, cold face and
+keen, grey eyes, aggressive even behind his gold-rimmed spectacles.
+There was a queer change in his face as his eyes met Pamela's. He
+seemed suddenly to become more human. His pleasure at seeing her was
+certainly more than the usual transatlantic politeness.
+
+"Mr. Fischer," she exclaimed, "they are saying hard things about our
+country! Please protect me."
+
+He bowed over her fingers. Then he looked up. His tone was impressive.
+
+"If I thought that you needed protection, Miss Van Teyl--"
+
+"Well, I can assure you that I do," she interrupted, laughing. "You
+know my friends, don't you?"
+
+"I think I have that pleasure," the American replied, shaking hands
+with Lutchester and Holderness.
+
+"Now we'll get an independent opinion," the former observed, pointing
+to the wall. "We were discussing that notice, Mr. Fischer. You're
+almost as much a Londoner as a New Yorker. What do you think?--is it
+superfluous or not?"
+
+Fischer read it out and smiled.
+
+"Well," he admitted, "in America we don't lay much store by that sort
+of thing, but I don't know as we're very good judges about what goes on
+over here. I shouldn't call this place, anyway, a hotbed of intrigue.
+Excuse me!"
+
+He moved off to greet some incoming guests--a well-known stockbroker
+and his partner. Lutchester looked after him curiously.
+
+"Is Mr. Fischer one of your typical millionaires, Miss Van Teyl?" he
+asked.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"We have no typical millionaires," she assured him. "They come from all
+classes and all States."
+
+"Fischer is a Westerner, isn't he?"
+
+Pamela nodded, but did not pursue the conversation. Her eyes were fixed
+upon a girl who had just entered, and who was looking a little
+doubtfully around, a girl plainly but smartly dressed, with fluffy
+light hair, dark eyes, and a very pleasant expression. Pamela, who was
+critical of her own sex, found the newcomer attractive.
+
+"Is that, by any chance, one of our missing guests, Captain
+Holderness?" she inquired, turning towards him. "I don't know why, but
+I have an idea that it is your sister."
+
+"By Jove, yes!" the young man assented, stepping forward. "Here we are,
+Molly, and at last you are going to meet Miss Van Teyl. I've bored
+Molly stiff, talking about you," he explained, as Pamela held out her
+hand.
+
+The girls, who stood talking together for a moment, presented rather a
+striking contrast. Molly Holderness was pretty but usual. Pamela was
+beautiful and unusual. She had the long, slim body of a New York girl,
+the complexion and eyes of a Southerner, the savoir faire of a
+Frenchwoman. She was extraordinarily cosmopolitan, and yet
+extraordinarily American. She impressed every one, as she did Molly
+Holderness at that moment, with a sense of charm. One could almost
+accept as truth her own statement--that she valued her looks chiefly
+because they helped people to forget that she had brains.
+
+"I won't admit that I have ever been bored, Miss Van Teyl," Molly
+Holderness assured her, "but Dick has certainly told me all sorts of
+wonderful things about you--how kind you were in New York, and what a
+delightful surprise it was to see you down at the hospital at Nice. I
+am afraid he must have been a terrible crock then."
+
+"Got well in no time as soon as Miss Van Teyl came along," Holderness
+declared. "It was a bit dreary down there at first. None of my lot were
+sent south, and a familiar face means a good deal when you've got your
+lungs full of that rotten gas and are feeling like nothing on earth. I
+wonder where that idiot Sandy is. I told him to be here a quarter of an
+hour before you others--thought we might have had a quiet chat first.
+Will you stand by the girls for a moment, Lutchester, while I have a
+look round?" he added.
+
+He hobbled away, one of the thousands who were thronging the streets
+and public places of London--brave, simple-minded young men, all of
+them, with tangled recollections in their brains of blood and fire and
+hell, and a game leg or a lost arm to remind them that the whole thing
+was not a nightmare. He looked a little disconsolately around, and was
+on the point of rejoining the others when the friend for whom he was
+searching came hurriedly through the turnstile doors.
+
+"Sandy, old chap," Holderness exclaimed, with an air of relief, "here
+you are at last!"
+
+"Cheero, Dick!" was the light-hearted reply. "Fearfully sorry I'm late,
+but listen--just listen for one moment."
+
+The newcomer threw his hat and coat to the attendant. He was a rather
+short, freckled young man, with a broad, high forehead and
+light-coloured hair. His eyes just now were filled with the enthusiasm
+which trembled in his tone.
+
+"Dick," he continued, gripping his friend's arm tightly, "I'm late, I
+know, but I've great news. I've motored straight up from Salisbury
+Plain. I've done it! I swear to you, Dick, I've done it!"
+
+"Done what?" Holderness demanded, a little bewildered.
+
+"I've perfected my explosive--the thing I was telling you about last
+week," was the triumphant reply. "The whole world's struggling for it,
+Dick. The German chemists have been working night and day for three
+years, just for one little formula, and I've got it! One of my shells,
+which fell in a wood at daylight this morning, killed every living
+thing within a mile of it. The bark fell off the trees, and the
+labourers in a field beyond threw down their implements and ran for
+their lives. It's the principle of intensification. The poison feeds on
+its own vapours. The formula--I've got it in my pocket-book--"
+
+"Look here, old fellow," Holderness interrupted, "it's all splendid, of
+course, and I'm dying to hear you talk about it, but come along now and
+be introduced to Miss Van Teyl. Molly's over there, waiting, and we're
+all half starved."
+
+"So am I," was the cheerful answer. "Hullo, Lutchester, how are you?
+Just one moment. I must get a wash, I motored straight through, and I'm
+choked with dust. Where do I go?"
+
+"I'll show you," Lutchester volunteered. "Hurry up."
+
+The two men sprang up the stairs towards the dressing-room, and
+Holderness strolled back to where his sister and Pamela were talking to
+a small, dark young man, with rather high cheek-bones and olive
+complexion. Pamela turned around with a smile.
+
+"I have found an old friend," she told him. "Baron Sunyea--Captain
+Holderness. Baron Sunyea used to be in the Japanese Embassy at
+Washington."
+
+The two men shook hands.
+
+"I was interested," the Japanese said slowly, "in your conversation
+just now about that notice. Your young friend was telling you news very
+loudly indeed, it seemed to me, which you would not like known across
+the North Sea. Am I not right?"
+
+"In a sense you are, of course," Holderness admitted, "but here at
+Henry's--why, the place is like a club. Where are the enemies' ears to
+come from, I should like to know?"
+
+"Where we least expect to find them, as a rule," was the grave reply.
+
+"Quite right," Lutchester, who had just rejoined them, agreed. "They
+still say, you know, that our home Secret Service is just as bad as our
+foreign Secret Service is good."
+
+Holderness smiled in somewhat superior fashion.
+
+"Can't say that I have much faith in that spy talk," he declared. "No
+doubt there was any quantity of espionage before the war, but it's
+pretty well weeded out now. I say, how good civilisation is!" he went
+on, his eyes dwelling lovingly on the interior of the restaurant.
+"Tophole, isn't it, Lutchester--these smart girls, with their furs and
+violets and perfumes, the little note of music in the distance, the
+cheerful clatter of plates, the smiling faces of the waiters, and the
+undercurrent of pleasant voices. Don't laugh at me, please, Miss Van
+Teyl. I've three weeks more of it, by George--perhaps more. I don't go
+up before my Board till Thursday fortnight. Dash it, I wish Sandy would
+hurry up!"
+
+"You never told me how you got your wound," Pamela observed, as the
+conversation flagged for a moment.
+
+"Can't even remember," was the careless reply. "We were all scrapping
+away as hard as we could one afternoon, and nearly a dozen of us got
+the knock, all at the same time. It's quite all right now, though,
+except for the stiffness. It was the gas did me in.... What a fellow
+Sandy is! You people must be starving."
+
+They waited for another five minutes. Then Holderness limped towards
+the stairs with a little imprecation. Lutchester stopped him.
+
+"Don't you go, Holderness," he begged. "I'll find him and bring him
+down by the scruff of the neck."
+
+He strode up the stairs on a mission which ended in unexpected failure.
+Presently he returned, a slight frown upon his forehead.
+
+"I am awfully sorry," he announced, "but I can't find him anywhere. I
+left him washing his hands, and he said he'd be down in a moment. Are
+you quite sure that we haven't missed him?"
+
+"There hasn't been a sign of him," Molly declared promptly. "I am so
+hungry that my eyes have been glued upon the staircase all the time."
+
+Pamela, who had slipped away a few moments before, rejoined them with a
+little expression of surprise.
+
+"Isn't Captain Graham here yet?" she asked incredulously.
+
+"Not a sign of him," Holderness replied. "Queer set out, isn't it? We
+won't wait a moment longer. Take my sister and Miss Van Teyl in, will
+you?" he went on, laying his hand on Lutchester's shoulder. "Ferrani
+will look after you. I'll follow directly."
+
+The chief maitre d'hotel advanced to meet them with a gesture of
+invitation, and led them to a table arranged for five. The restaurant
+was crowded, and the coloured band, from the space against the wall on
+their left, was playing a lively one-step. Ferrani was buttonholed by
+an important client as they crossed the threshold, and they lingered
+for a moment, waiting for his guidance. Whilst they stood there, a
+curious thing happened. The leader of the orchestra seemed to draw his
+fingers recklessly across the strings of his instrument and to produce
+a discord which was almost appalling. A half-pained, half-amused
+exclamation rippled down the room. For a moment the music ceased. The
+conductor, who was responsible for the disturbance, was sitting
+motionless, his hand hanging down by his side. His features remained
+imperturbable, but the gleam of his white teeth, and a livid little
+streak under his eyes gave to his usually good-humoured face an utterly
+altered, almost a malignant expression. Ferrani stepped across and
+spoke to him for a moment angrily. The man took up his instrument,
+waved his hand, and the music re-commenced in a subdued note. Pamela
+turned to the chief maitre d'hotel, who had now re-joined them.
+
+"What an extraordinary breakdown!" she exclaimed. "Is your leader a man
+of nerves?"
+
+"Never have I heard such a thing in all my days," Ferrani assured them
+fervently. "Joseph is one of the most wonderful performers in the
+world. His control over his instrument is marvellous.... Captain
+Holderness asked particularly for this table."
+
+They seated themselves at the table reserved for them against the wall.
+Their cicerone was withdrawing with a low bow, but Pamela leaned over
+to speak to him.
+
+"Your music," she told him, "is quite wonderful. The orchestra consists
+entirely of Americans, I suppose?"
+
+"Entirely, madam," Ferrani assented. "They are real Southern darkies,
+from Joseph, the leader, down to little Peter, who blows the
+motor-horn."
+
+Pamela's interest in the matter remained unabated.
+
+"I tell you it makes one feel almost homesick to hear them play," she
+went on, with a little sigh. "Did they come direct from the States?"
+
+Ferrani shook his head.
+
+"From Paris, madam. Before that, for a little time, they were at the
+Winter Garden in Berlin. They made quite a European tour of it before
+they arrived here."
+
+"And he is the leader--the man whom you call Joseph," Pamela observed.
+"A broad, good-humoured face--not much intelligence, I should imagine."
+
+Ferrani's protest was vigorous and gesticulatory. He evidently had
+ideas of his own concerning Joseph.
+
+"More, perhaps, than you would think, madam," he declared. "He knows
+how to make a bargain, believe me. It cost us more than I would like to
+tell you to get these fellows here."
+
+Pamela looked him in the eyes.
+
+"Be careful, Monsieur Ferrani," she advised, "that it does not cost you
+more to get rid of them."
+
+She leaned back in her place, apparently tired of the subject, and
+Ferrani, a little puzzled, made his bow and withdrew. The music was
+once more in full swing. Their luncheon was served, and Lutchester did
+his best to entertain his companions. Their eyes, however, every few
+seconds strayed towards the door. There was no sign of the missing
+guest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Molly Holderness, for whom Graham's absence possessed, perhaps, more
+significance than the others, relapsed very soon into a strained and
+anxious silence. Pamela and Lutchester, on the other hand, divided
+their attention between a very excellent luncheon and an even flow of
+personal, almost inquisitorial conversation.
+
+"You will find," Pamela warned her companion almost as they took their
+places, "that I am a very curious person. I am more interested in
+people than in events. Tell me something about your work at the War
+Office?"
+
+"I am not at the War Office," he replied.
+
+"Well, what is it that you do, then?" she asked. "Captain Holderness
+told me that you had been out in France, fighting, but that you had
+some sort of official position at home now."
+
+"I am at the Ministry of Munitions," he explained.
+
+"Well, tell me about that, then?" she suggested. "Is it as exciting as
+fighting?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It has advantages," he admitted, "but I should scarcely say that
+excitement figured amongst them."
+
+She looked at him thoughtfully. Lutchester was a little over
+thirty-five years of age, tall and of sinewy build. His colouring was
+neutral, his complexion inclined to be pale, his mouth straight and
+firm, his grey eyes rather deep-set. Without possessing any of the
+stereotyped qualifications, he was sufficiently good-looking.
+
+"I wonder you didn't prefer soldiering," she observed.
+
+He smiled for a moment, and Pamela felt unreasonably annoyed at the
+twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"I am not a soldier by profession," he said, "but I went out with the
+Expeditionary Force and had a year of it. They kept me here, after a
+slight wound, to take up my old work again."
+
+"Your old work," she repeated. "I didn't know there was such a thing as
+a Ministry of Munitions before the war."
+
+He deliberately changed the conversation, directing Pamela's attention
+to the crowded condition of the room.
+
+"Gay scene, isn't it?" he remarked.
+
+"Very!" she assented drily.
+
+"Do you come here to dance?" he inquired.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You must remember that I have been living in Paris for some months,"
+she told him. "You won't be annoyed if I tell you that the way you
+English people are taking the war simply maddens me. Your young
+soldiers talk about it as though it were a sort of picnic, your
+middle-aged clubmen seem to think that it was invented to give them a
+fresh interest in their newspapers, and the rest of you seem to think
+of nothing but the money you are making. And Paris.... No, I don't
+think I should care to dance here!"
+
+Lutchester nodded, but Pamela fancied somehow or other that his
+attitude was not wholly sympathetic. His tone, with its slight note of
+admonition, irritated her.
+
+"You must be careful," he said, "not to be too much misled by
+externals."
+
+Pamela opened her lips for a quick reply, but checked herself.
+
+Captain Holderness and Ferrani had entered the room and were
+approaching their table, talking earnestly. The latter especially was
+looking perplexed and anxious.
+
+"It's the queerest thing I ever knew," Holderness pronounced. "We've
+searched every hole and corner upstairs, and there isn't a sign of
+Sandy."
+
+"Have you tried the bar?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+"Both the bar and the grillroom," Ferrani assured him.
+
+"If he had been suddenly taken ill--" Molly murmured.
+
+"But there is no place in which he could have been taken ill which we
+have not searched," Ferrani reminded her.
+
+"And besides," Holderness intervened, "Sandy was in the very pink of
+health, and bubbling over with high-spirits."
+
+"One noticed that," Lutchester remarked, a little drily.
+
+"He might almost have been called garrulous," Pamela agreed.
+
+Ferrani took grave leave of them, and Holderness seated himself at the
+table.
+
+"Well, let's get on with luncheon, anyway," he advised. "It's no good
+bothering. The best thing we can do is to conclude that the impossible
+has happened--that Sandy has met with some pals and will be here
+presently."
+
+"Or possibly," Lutchester suggested, "that he has done what certainly
+seems the most reasonable thing--gone straight off to the War Office
+with his formula and forgotten all about us. Let us return the
+compliment and forget all about him."
+
+They finished their luncheon a little more cheerfully. As the
+cigarettes were handed round, Pamela's eyes looked longingly at a tray
+of Turkish coffee which was passing.
+
+"I'm a rotten host," Holderness declared, "but, to tell you the truth,
+this queer prank of Sandy's has driven everything else out of my mind.
+Here, Hassan!"
+
+The coloured man in gorgeous oriental livery turned at once with a
+smile. He approached the table, bowing to each of them in turn. Pamela
+watched him intently, and, as his eyes met hers, Hassan's hands began
+to shake.
+
+"The waiter is bringing us ordinary coffee," Holderness explained.
+"Please countermand it and bring us Turkish coffee for four."
+
+The man had lost his savoir faire. His wonderful smile had turned into
+something sickly, his bland speech of thanks into a mumble. He turned
+away almost sheepishly.
+
+"Hassan doesn't seem to like us to-day," Molly remarked.
+
+"I should have said that he was drunk," her brother observed, looking
+after him curiously.
+
+There was certainly something the matter with Hassan, for it was at
+least a quarter of an hour before he reappeared and served his
+specially prepared concoction with the usual ceremony but with more
+restraint. Molly and the two men, after Hassan had sprinkled the
+contents of his mysterious little flask into their coffee, gave him
+their hands for the customary salute. When he came to Pamela he
+hesitated. She shook her head and he fell back, bowing respectfully,
+his hand tracing cabalistic signs across his heart. For a moment before
+he departed, he raised his eyes and glanced at her. It was like the
+mute appeal of some hurt or frightened animal.
+
+"You don't approve of Hassan's little ceremony?" Lutchester asked her.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"In America," she observed, "I think we look upon coloured people of
+any sort a little differently. Well, we've certainly given your friend
+a chance," she went on, glancing at the little jewelled watch upon her
+wrist, "We've outstayed almost every one here."
+
+Their host paid the bill, and they strolled reluctantly towards the
+door, Holderness and Pamela a few steps behind.
+
+"Now what are your sister and Mr. Lutchester studying again?" the
+latter inquired, as they reached the lobby.
+
+Molly had paused once more before the notice on the wall, which seemed
+somehow to have fascinated her. She read it out, lingering on every
+word:
+
+MEFIEZ-VOUS!
+TAISEZ-VOUS!
+LES OREILLES ENNEMIES VOUS
+ECOUTENT!
+
+Holderness listened with a frown. Then he turned suddenly to
+Lutchester, who was standing by his side.
+
+"It would be too ridiculous, wouldn't it--you couldn't in any way
+connect the idea behind that notice with Sandy's disappearance?"
+
+"I was wondering about that myself," Lutchester confessed. "To tell you
+the truth, I have been wondering all luncheon-time. If ever a man broke
+the letter and the spirit of that simple warning I should say your
+excitable young friend, Captain Graham, did."
+
+"But here at Henry's," Holderness protested, "with friends on every
+side! Isn't it a little too ridiculous! We'll wait until the last
+person is out of the place, anyway," he added.
+
+The crowd soon began to thin. Ferrani, seeing them still waiting,
+approached with a little bow.
+
+"Your friend," he asked, "he has not arrived, eh?"
+
+"No sign of him," Holderness replied gloomily.
+
+"What about his hat and coat?" Ferrani inquired, with a sudden
+inspiration.
+
+"Great idea," Holderness assented, turning towards the cloakroom
+attendant. "Don't you remember my friend, James?" he went on. "He
+arrived about half-past one, and threw his coat and hat over to you."
+
+The attendant nodded and glanced towards an empty peg.
+
+"I remember him quite well, sir," he acknowledged. "Number sixty-seven
+was his number."
+
+"Where are his things, then?"
+
+"Gone, sir," the man replied.
+
+"Do you remember his asking for them?"
+
+The attendant shook his head.
+
+"Can't say that I do, sir," he acknowledged, "but they've gone right
+enough."
+
+A party of outgoing guests claimed the man's attention. Holderness
+turned away.
+
+"This thing is getting on my nerves," he declared. "Does it seem likely
+that Sandy should chuck his luncheon without a word of explanation,
+come out and get his coat and hat and walk off? And, besides, where was
+he all the time we were looking for him?"
+
+It was unanswerable, inexplicable. They all looked at one another
+almost helplessly. Pamela held out her hand.
+
+"Well," she announced, "I am sorry, but I'm afraid that I must go. I
+have a great many things to attend to this afternoon."
+
+"You are going away soon?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+She hesitated, and at that moment Mr. Fischer, who had been saying
+farewell to his guests, turned towards her.
+
+"You are not thinking of the trip home yet, Miss Van Teyl?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," she answered a little evasively. "I'm out of humour
+with London just now."
+
+"Perhaps we shall be fellow-passengers on Thursday?" he ventured. "I am
+going over on the _New York_."
+
+"I never make plans," she told him.
+
+"In any case," Mr. Fischer continued, "I shall anticipate our early
+meeting in New York. I heard from your brother only yesterday."
+
+She looked at him with a slight frown.
+
+"From James?"
+
+Mr. Fischer nodded.
+
+"Why, I didn't know," she observed, "that you and he were acquainted."
+
+"I have had large transactions with his firm, and naturally I have seen
+a good deal of Mr. Van Teyl," the other explained. "He looks after the
+interests of us Western clients."
+
+Pamela turned a little abruptly away, and Lutchester walked with her to
+the door.
+
+"You will let me see that they bring your car round?" he asked.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Thank you, no," she replied, holding out her hand. "I have not yet
+said good-by to Captain Holderness and his sister. Good-by, Mr.
+Lutchester!"
+
+Her farewell was purposely chilly. It seemed as though the slight
+sparring in which they had indulged throughout luncheon-time, had found
+its culmination in an antipathy which she had no desire to conceal.
+Lutchester, however, only smiled.
+
+"Nowadays," he observed, "that is a word which it is never necessary to
+use."
+
+She withdrew her hand from his somewhat too tenacious clasp. Something
+in his manner puzzled as well as irritated her.
+
+"Do you mean that you, too, are thinking of taking a holiday from your
+strenuous labours?" she asked. "Perhaps America is the safest country
+in the world just now for an Englishman who--"
+
+She stopped short, realising the lengths towards which her causeless
+pique was carrying her.
+
+"Prefers departmental work to fighting, were you going to add?" he said
+quietly. "Well, perhaps you are right. At any rate, I will content
+myself by saying au revoir."
+
+He passed through the turnstile door and disappeared. Pamela made her
+adieux to Holderness and his sister, and then, recognising some
+acquaintances, turned back into the restaurant to speak to them.
+Fischer, who had just received his hat and cane from the cloakroom
+attendant, stood watching her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Pamela, after a brief conversation with her friends, once more left the
+restaurant. In the lobby she called Ferrani to her.
+
+"Has Mr. Fischer gone, Ferrani?" she asked.
+
+"Not two minutes ago," the man replied. "You wish to speak to him? I
+can stop him even now."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"On the contrary," she said drily, "Mr. Fischer represents a type of my
+countrymen of whom I am not very fond. He is a great patron of yours,
+is he not?"
+
+"He is a large shareholder in the company," Ferrani confessed.
+
+"Then your restaurant will prosper," she told him. "Mr. Fischer has the
+name of being very fortunate.... That was a wonderful luncheon you gave
+us to-day."
+
+"Madame is very kind."
+
+"Will you do me a favour?"
+
+Ferrani's gesture was all-expressive. Words were entirely superfluous.
+
+"I want two addresses, please. First, the address of Joseph, your head
+musician, and, secondly, the address of Hassan, your coffee-maker."
+
+Ferrani effectually concealed any surprise he might have felt. He tore
+a page from his pocket-book.
+
+"Both I know," he declared. "Hassan lodges at a shop eighty yards away.
+The name is Haines, and there are newspaper placards outside the door."
+
+"That is quite enough," Pamela murmured.
+
+"As for Monsieur Joseph," Ferrani continued, "that is a different
+matter. He has, I understand, a small flat in Tower Mansions, Tower
+Street, leading off the Edgware Road. The number is 18C. So!"
+
+He wrote it down and passed it to her. Pamela thanked him and stood up.
+
+"Now that I have done as you asked me," Ferrani concluded, "let me add
+a word. Both these men are already off duty and have left the
+restaurant. If you wish to communicate with either of them, I advise
+you to do so by letter."
+
+"You are a very courteous gentleman, Mr. Ferrani," Pamela declared,
+dropping him a little mock curtsey, "and good morning!"
+
+She made her way into the street outside, shook her head to the
+commissionaire's upraised whistle, and strolled along until she came to
+a cross street down which several motor-cars were waiting. She
+approached one--a very handsome limousine--and checked the driver who
+would have sprung from his seat.
+
+"George," she said, "I am going to pay a call at a disreputable-looking
+news-shop, just where I am pointing. You can't bring the car there, as
+the street is too narrow. You might follow me on foot and be about."
+
+The young man touched his hat and obeyed. A few yards down the street
+Pamela found her destination, and entered a gloomy little shop. A
+slatternly woman looked at her curiously from behind the counter.
+
+"I am told that Hassan lodges here, the coffee-maker from Henry's,"
+Pamela began.
+
+The woman looked at her in a peculiar fashion.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I wish to see him."
+
+"You can't, then," was the curt answer. "He's at his prayers."
+
+"At what?" Pamela exclaimed.
+
+"At his prayers," the woman repeated brusquely. "There," she added,
+throwing open the door which led into the premises behind, "can't you
+hear him, poor soul? He's been pinching some more charms from ladies'
+bracelets, or something of the sort, I reckon. He's always in trouble.
+He goes on like this for an hour or so and then he forgives himself."
+
+Pamela stood by the open door and listened--listened to a strange,
+wailing chant, which rose and fell with almost weird monotony.
+
+"Very interesting," she observed. "I have heard that sort of thing
+before. Now will you kindly tell Hassan that I wish to speak to him, or
+shall I go and find him for myself?"
+
+"Well, you've got some brass!" the woman declared, with a sneer.
+
+"And some gold," Pamela assented, passing a pound note over to the
+woman.
+
+"Do you want to see him alone?" the latter asked, almost snatching at
+the note, but still regarding Pamela with distrustful curiosity.
+
+"Of course," was the calm reply.
+
+The woman opened her lips and closed them again, sniffed, and led the
+way down a short passage, at the end of which was a door.
+
+"There you are," she muttered, throwing it open. "You've arst for it,
+mind. 'Tain't my business."
+
+She slouched her way back again into the shop. At first Pamela could
+scarcely see anything except a dark figure on his knees before a closed
+and shrouded window. Then she saw Hassan rise to his feet, saw the
+glitter of his eyes.
+
+"Pull up the blind, Hassan," she directed.
+
+He came a step nearer to her. The gloom in the apartment was
+extraordinary. Only his shape and his eyes were visible.
+
+"Do as I tell you," she ordered. "Pull up the blind. It will be
+better."
+
+He hesitated. Then he obeyed. Even then the interior of the room seemed
+shadowy and obscure. Pamela could only see, in contrast with the rest
+of the house, that it was wonderfully and spotlessly clean. In one
+corner, barely concealed by a low screen, his bed stood upon the floor.
+Hassan muttered something in an Oriental tongue. Pamela interrupted
+him. She spoke in the soothing tone one uses towards a child.
+
+"That's all right, Hassan," she said. "Sorry to have interrupted you at
+your prayers, but it had to be done. You know me?"
+
+"Yes, mistress," he answered unwillingly. "I your dragoman one year in
+Cairo. What you want here, mistress?"
+
+"You know that I know," she went on, "that you are a Turk and a
+Mohammedan, and not an Egyptian at all."
+
+"Yes, mistress, you know that," he muttered.
+
+"And you also know," she continued, "that if I give you away to the
+authorities you will be sent at once to a very uncomfortable internment
+camp, where you won't even have an opportunity to wash more than once a
+day, where you will have to herd with all sorts of people, who will
+make fun of your colour and your religion--"
+
+"Don't, mistress!" he shouted suddenly. "You will not tell. I think you
+will not tell!"
+
+He was sidling a little towards her. Again one of those curious changes
+seemed to have transformed him from a dumb, passive creature into a
+savage. There was menace in his eyes. She waved him back without
+moving.
+
+"I have come to make a bargain with you, Hassan," she said, "just a few
+words, that is all. Not quite so near, please."
+
+He paused. There was a moment's silence. His face was within a foot of
+hers, lowering, black, bestial. Her eyes met his without a tremor. Her
+full, sweet lips only curved into a faintly contemptuous line.
+
+"You cannot frighten me, Hassan," she declared. "No man has ever done
+that. And outside I have a chauffeur with muscles of iron, who waits
+for me. Be reasonable. Listen. There are secrets connected with your
+restaurant."
+
+"I know nothing," he began at once; "nothing, mistress--nothing!"
+
+"Quite naturally," she continued. "I only need one piece of
+information. A man disappeared there this morning. I just have to find
+him. That's all there is about it. At half-past one he was inveigled
+into the musicians' room and by some means or other rendered
+unconscious. At three o'clock he had been removed. I want to know what
+became of him. You help me and the whole world can believe you to be an
+Egyptian for the rest of their lives. If you can't help me it is rather
+unfortunate for you, because I shall tell the police at once who and
+what you are. Don't waste time, Hassan."
+
+He stood thinking, rubbing his hands and bowing before her, yet, as she
+knew very well, with murder in his heart. Once she saw his long fingers
+raised a little.
+
+"Quite useless, Hassan," she warned him. "They hang you in England, you
+know, for any little trifle such as you are thinking of. Be sensible,
+and I may even leave a few pound notes behind me."
+
+"Mistress should ask Joseph," he muttered. "I know nothing."
+
+"Oh, mistress is going to ask Joseph all right," she assured him, "but
+I want a little information from you, too. You've got to earn your
+freedom, you know, Hassan. Come, what do they do with the people who
+disappear from the restaurant?"
+
+"Not understand," was the almost piteous reply.
+
+Pamela sighed. She had again the air of one being patient with a child.
+
+"See here, Hassan," she went on, "a few days ago I went over that
+restaurant from top to bottom with the manager. There is the musicians'
+room, isn't there, just over the entrance hall? I suppose those little
+glass places in the floor are movable, and then one can hear every word
+that is spoken below. I am right so far, am I not?"
+
+Hassan answered nothing. His breathing, however, had become a little
+deeper.
+
+"An unsuspecting person, passing from the toilet rooms upstairs, could
+easily be induced to enter. I think that there must be another exit
+from that room. Yes?"
+
+"Yes!" Hassan faltered.
+
+"To where?"
+
+"The wine-cellars."
+
+"And from there?"
+
+Hassan was suddenly voluble. Truth unlocked his tongue.
+
+"Not know, mistress--not know another thing. No one enters wine-cellar
+but three men. One of those not know. If I guess--I, Hassan--I look at
+little chapel left standing in waste place. Perhaps I wonder sometimes,
+but I not know."
+
+Pamela drew three notes from her gold purse, smoothed them out and
+handed them over.
+
+"Three pounds, Hassan, silence, and good day! You'll live longer if you
+open your windows now and then, and get a little fresh air, instead of
+praying yourself hoarse."
+
+Again the black figure swayed perilously towards her. She affected not
+to notice, not to notice the hand which seemed for a moment as though
+it would snatch the door handle from her grasp. She passed out
+pleasantly and without haste. The last sound she heard was a groan.
+
+"Done your bit o' business, eh?" the landlady asked curiously.
+
+Pamela nodded assent.
+
+"Rather an odd sort of lodger for you, isn't he?"
+
+"Not so odd as his visitors," the woman retorted, with an evil sneer.
+
+Pamela passed into the narrow street and drew a long sigh of relief.
+Then she entered her car and gave the chauffeur an address from the
+slip of paper which she carried in her hand. When they stopped outside
+the little block of flats he prepared to follow her.
+
+"Tough neighbourhood this, madam," he said.
+
+"Maybe, George," she replied, waving him back, "but you've got to stay
+down here. If the man I am going to see thought I was frightened of him
+I wouldn't have a chance. If I am not down in half an hour you can try
+number 18C."
+
+The chauffeur resumed his place on the driving-seat of the car. Pamela,
+heartily disliking her surroundings, was escorted by a shabby porter to
+a shabbier lift.
+
+"You'll find Mr. Joseph in," the lift boy assured her with a grin.
+
+Pamela found the number at the end of an unswept stone passage. At her
+third summons the door was cautiously opened by a large,
+repulsive-looking woman, with a mass of peroxidised hair. She stared at
+her visitor first in amazement, then in rapidly gathering resentment.
+
+"Mr. Joseph is at home," she admitted truculently, in response to
+Pamela's inquiry. "What might you be wanting with him?"
+
+"If you will be so good as to let me in I will explain to Mr. Joseph,"
+Pamela replied.
+
+The woman seemed on the point of slamming the door. Suddenly there was
+a voice from behind her shoulder. Joseph appeared--not the smiling,
+joyous Joseph of Henry's but a sullen-looking negro, dressed in shirt
+and trousers only, with a heavy under-lip and frowning forehead.
+
+"Let the lady pass and get into the kitchen, Nora," he ordered, "Come
+this way, mam."
+
+Pamela followed her guide into a parlour, redolent of stale cigar
+smoke, with oilcloth on the floor and varnished walls, an abode even
+more horrible than Hassan's lair. Joseph closed the door carefully
+behind him, and made no apology for his dishabille. He simply faced
+Pamela.
+
+"Say, what is it you want with me?" he demanded truculently.
+
+"A trifle," she answered. "The key of the chapel in the little plot of
+waste ground next Henry's."
+
+She meant him to be staggered, and he was. He reeled back for a moment.
+
+"What the hell are you talking about?" he gasped.
+
+"Facts," Pamela replied. "Do you want to save yourself, Joseph? You can
+do it if you choose."
+
+He folded his arms and stood in front of the closed door. Without a
+collar, his neck bulged unpleasantly behind. There was nothing whatever
+left of the suave and genial chef d'orchestra.
+
+"Save myself from what, eh? Just let me get wise about it."
+
+Pamela's eyebrows were daintily elevated.
+
+"Dear me!" she murmured. "I thought you were more intelligent. Listen.
+You know where we met last? Let me remind you. You were playing in the
+Winter Garden at Berlin, and the gentleman whom I was with, an attache
+at the American Embassy, spoke to you. He told me a good deal about
+your past life, Joseph, and your present one. You are in the pay of the
+Secret Service of Germany. Am I to go to Scotland Yard and tell them
+so?"
+
+He looked at her wickedly.
+
+"You'd have to get out of here first."
+
+"Don't be silly," she advised him contemptuously. "Remember you're
+talking to an American woman and don't waste your breath. You can be in
+the Secret Service of any country you like, without interference from
+me. On the other hand, there's just one thing I want from you."
+
+"What is it? I haven't got any key."
+
+"I want to discover exactly what has become of Captain Graham," she
+declared.
+
+"What, the guy that missed his lunch to-day?" he growled.
+
+"I see you know all about it," she continued equably.
+
+"So he's your spark, is he?" Joseph observed slowly, his eyes blinking
+as he leaned a little forward.
+
+"On the contrary," Pamela replied, "I have never met him. However,
+that's beside the point. Do I have the key of that chapel?"
+
+"You do not."
+
+"Have you got it?"
+
+"Right here," Joseph assented, dangling it before her eyes.
+
+"I think it's a fair bargain I'm offering you," she reminded him. "You
+lose the key and keep your place. You only have to keep your mouth shut
+and nothing happens."
+
+"Nothing doing," the negro declared shortly. "Keys as important as this
+ain't lost. If I part with it, I get the chuck, and I probably get into
+the same mess as the others. If I keep it--"
+
+"If you keep it," Pamela interrupted, "you will probably stand with
+your back to the light in the Tower within the next few days. They've
+left off being lenient with spies over here."
+
+He looked at her, and there were things in his eyes which few women in
+the world could have seen without terror. Pamela's lips only came a
+little closer together. She pressed the inside of the ring upon her
+third finger, and a ray of green fire seemed to shoot forward.
+
+"I guess I'm up against it," he growled, taking a step forward. "I'll
+have something of what's coming to me, if I swing for it."
+
+His arm was suddenly around her, his face hideously close. He gave a
+little snarl as he felt the pinprick through his shirt sleeve. Then he
+went spinning round and round with his hand to his head.
+
+"What in God's name!" he spluttered. "What in hell--!"
+
+He reeled against the horsehair easy-chair and slipped on to the floor.
+Pamela calmly closed her ring, stooped over him, withdrew the key from
+his pocket, crossed the room and the dingy little hall with swift
+footsteps, and, without waiting for the lift, fled down the stone
+steps. Before she reached the bottom, she heard the shrill ringing of
+the lift bell, the angry shouting of the woman. Pamela, however,
+strolled quietly out and took her place in the car.
+
+"Back to the hotel, George," she directed the chauffeur. "Don't stop if
+they call to you from the flats."
+
+The young man sprang up to his seat and the car glided off. Pamela
+leaned forward and looked at herself in the mirror. There was a shade
+more colour in her face, perhaps, than usual, but her low waves of
+chestnut hair were unruffled. She used her powder puff with attentive
+skill and leaned back.
+
+"That's the disagreeable part of it over, anyway," she sighed to
+herself contentedly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The last of the supper-guests had left Henry's Restaurant, the
+commissionaire's whistle was silent. The light laughter and frivolous
+adieux of the departing guests seemed to have melted away into a world
+somewhere beyond the pale of the unseasonable fog. The little strip of
+waste ground adjoining was wrapped in gloom and silence. The exterior
+of the bare and deserted chapel, long since unconsecrate, was dull and
+lifeless. Inside, however, began the march of strange things. First of
+all, the pinprick of light of a tiny electric torch seemed as though it
+had risen from the floor, and Hassan, pushing back a trap-door, stepped
+into the bare, dusty conventicle. He listened for a moment, then made a
+tour of the windows, touched a spring in the wall, and drew down long,
+thick blinds. Afterwards he passed between the row of dilapidated
+benches and paused at the entrance door. He stooped down, examined the
+keyless lock, shook it gently, gazed upwards and downwards as though in
+vain search of bolts that were never there. His white teeth gleamed for
+a moment in the darkness. He turned away with a little shiver.
+
+"Not my fault," he muttered to himself. "Not my fault."
+
+He listened for a moment intently, as though for footsteps outside. The
+disturbance, however, came from the other end of the building. There
+was a sharp knocking from the trap-door by which he had ascended. He
+touched an electric knob. The place was dimly yet sufficiently
+illuminated. He hastened towards the further end of the place and
+pulled up the trap-door. A melancholy-looking little procession slowly
+emerged. First of all came Joseph, stepping backwards, supporting the
+head and shoulders of Graham, still bound and gagged. After him came a
+dark, swarthy-faced wine waiter, who supported Graham's feet. Behind
+followed Fischer, carrying his silk hat and cane in his hand. He paused
+for a moment as he stepped on the floor of the chapel, and brushed the
+dust from his trousers.
+
+"You can take out the gag now," he ordered the two men. "There isn't
+much shout in him."
+
+They laid him upon a couch, and Joseph obeyed the order. Graham's head
+swung helplessly on one side. His eyes opened, however, and he
+struggled for consciousness. His lips twitched for a moment. In these
+long hours he had almost forgotten the habit of speech. The words, when
+they came, sounded strange to him.
+
+"What--where am I? What do you want with me?"
+
+Fischer laid his hat and stick upon a table, on which also stood a
+telephone instrument.
+
+"The formula, my young friend," he replied, "for that wonderful
+explosive of which you spoke in the lobby."
+
+A sudden accession of nervous strength brought something almost like
+passion into the young man's reply, although to himself there still
+seemed some unreality in the words which might have come from the walls
+or the roof--surely not from his lips.
+
+"I'll see you damned first!"
+
+Fischer smiled. The man was good-looking, in his way, but this was a
+pale and ugly smile.
+
+"My request was merely a matter of courtesy," he remarked. "The
+difficulty of searching you is not formidable. It would have been
+undertaken long ago but for the fact that the restaurant has been
+crowded and gags sometimes slip. Besides, there was no hurry. Observe!"
+
+He leaned over Graham, who for the first time struggled furiously but
+ineffectually with his bonds. His fingers all the time were straining
+towards the inside pocket of his coat. Fischer nodded understandingly.
+
+"Allow me to anticipate you," he said.
+
+With a quick thrust he drew a little handful of papers from the pocket
+of his captive. One by one he glanced them through and flung them on to
+the floor. As he came towards the end of his search, however, his
+expression of confident complacency vanished. His lips shrivelled up a
+little, his eyes narrowed. The last folded sheet of paper--a little
+perfumed note from Peggy, thanking Sandy for his beautiful roses--he
+crumpled fiercely into a little ball. He opened his lips to speak, then
+he paused. A new light broke in upon him. The fury had passed from
+Sandy Graham's face. In its stead there was an expression of blank
+astonishment.
+
+"Where is the formula?" Fischer asked fiercely.
+
+There was no reply. Sandy Graham was still staring at the little pile
+of papers upon the floor. Fischer made a brief examination of the other
+pockets. Then he stepped back. His voice shook, his face was dark and
+malevolent.
+
+"Joseph, Hassan, Jules--listen to me!" he ordered. "Did any one else
+enter the musicians' room whilst he was lying in the alcove?"
+
+"Impossible!" Jules declared.
+
+"The door was locked," Hassan murmured.
+
+"Stop!" Joseph exclaimed.
+
+Fischer wheeled round upon him.
+
+"Well?" he exclaimed. "Get on, then. Who?"
+
+Joseph moistened his lips. He was still feeling sore and dizzy, but he
+began to see his way.
+
+"You noticed, perhaps," he said, "the American girl--the beautiful
+young lady with this guy's friends? She was waiting with the others for
+Captain Graham to come down. I saw her go up the stairs. I saw her come
+down again, three minutes later."
+
+"Miss Van Teyl?" Fischer exclaimed, with a frown. "You're mad, Joseph!"
+
+The negro laughed grimly.
+
+"Am I!" he retorted. "I tell you this, Master Fischer. She was in
+Berlin where I was, and she was at the Embassy every day. She was asked
+to leave there. They put her over the frontier into Holland. I knew her
+when she came into the restaurant. She's no society young lady, she
+ain't! Bet you she was on to the goods."
+
+Fischer hesitated for a moment. The thoughts were chasing one another
+through his brain. Then he took up the receiver from the telephone
+instrument which stood upon the table.
+
+"1560 Mayfair," he asked in a low tone.
+
+They all stood listening, grouped around Graham's writhing figure.
+
+"Hullo! Is that Claridge's Hotel?" Fischer went on. "I am speaking from
+Giro's. Put me through, if you please, to Miss Van Teyl's apartments...
+What? Repeat that, will you?... Thank you."
+
+Fischer laid down the receiver. He turned towards the others. He was
+breathing a little quickly, and his eyes glittered behind his
+gold-rimmed spectacles.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl," he announced, "has left for Tilbury. She is going out
+on the _Lapland_ this morning. My God, she's got the formula!"
+
+There was a moment's silence. Joseph was standing by with a wicked look
+on his face.
+
+"I saw her slip away," he muttered, "and I watched her come down again.
+There was just time."
+
+Fischer turned suddenly to where Graham was lying. He drew a sheet of
+writing paper from the rack upon the table, and a pencil from his
+pocket. There was an evil and concentrated significance in his tone.
+
+"That formula," he said, "can be written again. I think you had better
+write it."
+
+"I'll see you damned first!" was the weak but prompt reply.
+
+Fischer bent a little lower over the prostrate figure, "Look here," he
+went on, "we don't run risks like this for nothing. You're better dead
+than alive, so far as we are concerned, anyway. We'd planned to take
+the formula from you, and you can guess the rest. There are cellars
+underneath here into which no one ever goes who matters. Now here's a
+chance of life for you. Write down that formula--truthfully, mind--and
+we'll discuss the matter of taking your parole."
+
+"See you damned first!" Graham repeated, his voice a little more
+tremulous but still convincing.
+
+Fischer stood upright and turned to Jules.
+
+"Get a bottle of brandy and a glass," he ordered.
+
+The man pushed open the trap-door and disappeared. He came back again
+in a few moments, with a bottle in one hand and a glass in the other.
+Fischer poured out some of the cordial and drew a small table up to
+Graham's side.
+
+"There," he said, loosening the cord around his left wrist, "drink
+that, and think it over. We shall be gone for about ten minutes. If you
+change your mind before, ring that little hand-bell. If you have not
+changed your mind when we return, it will be the cellars."
+
+"Beasts!" Graham muttered.
+
+Fischer shrugged his shoulders. For a moment he had straightened
+himself. His face had softened, but it was in tune with his thoughts.
+
+"I would twist the necks of a million fools like you," he said, "for
+the sake of--"
+
+He paused, leaving his sentence uncompleted, and beckoned to the other
+men. They followed him through the trap-door and down into the cellars
+below. The place was once more silent. Graham rolled from side to side,
+drew a long breath, and tugged vainly at his bonds. The effort
+overtaxed his strength. He seemed to feel the darkness closing in upon
+him, the rushing of the sea in his ears....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+So far as Sandy Graham was concerned, his unconsciousness might have
+lasted an hour or a day. As a matter of fact, it was scarcely a minute
+after the disappearance of Fischer and his confederates when he was
+conscious of a rush of cold air in the place, and beheld the vision of
+a tiny flash of light at the lower end of the gloomy building.
+Immediately afterwards he heard the soft closing of a door and beheld a
+tall, shadowy figure slowly approaching. He lay quite still and looked
+at it, and his heart began to beat with hope. One of the lights had
+been left burning, and there was something in the bearing and attitude
+of the man who finally came to a standstill by his side, which was
+entirely reassuring.
+
+"Lutchester!" he faltered. "My God, how did you get here?"
+
+"Offices of a young lady," Lutchester observed, producing a knife from
+his pocket. "Allow me!"
+
+He cut the cords which still secured Graham's limbs. Then he looked
+around him.
+
+"How did they bring you here?" he whispered. "I suppose there is a
+passage from the restaurant?"
+
+"Up through a trapdoor there," Graham explained, pointing.
+
+Lutchester stood over it and listened intently.
+
+Then he turned around, lifted the glass of brandy from the table, smelt
+it approvingly, and tasted it.
+
+"Excellent!" he pronounced. "The 1840. Allow me!"
+
+He refilled the glass and handed it to Sandy, who gulped down the
+contents. The effect was almost instantaneous. In less than a minute he
+had staggered to his feet.
+
+"Feel strong enough to walk about fifty yards?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+"I'd walk to hell to get out of this place!" was the prompt reply.
+
+Lutchester took his arm, and they passed down the dusty aisle between
+the worm-eaten and decaying benches and through the outside door, which
+Lutchester closed and locked behind them. The rush of cold air was like
+new life to Graham.
+
+"I can walk all right now," he muttered. "My God, we'll give these
+fellows hell for this!"
+
+They made their very difficult way across a plot of ground from which a
+row of dilapidated cottages had been razed to the ground. The fog still
+hung around them and seemed to bring with it a curious silence,
+although the dying traffic from one of the main thoroughfares reached
+them in muffled notes. Lutchester climbed to the top of a pile of
+rubbish and then, turning around, held out his hand.
+
+"Up here," he directed.
+
+Graham struggled up until he stood by his companion's side. The latter
+stood quite still, listening for a moment. Then he climbed a little
+higher and swung around, holding out his hand once more.
+
+"I'm on top of the wall," he said. "Come
+on."
+
+Graham's knees were shaking, but with Lutchester's help he staggered up
+and reached his side. On the pavement below a man in chauffeur's livery
+was standing, holding out his hands, and by the side of the curbstone a
+closed car was waiting. Somehow or other the two reached the pavement.
+Lutchester almost pushed his companion into the limousine and stepped
+in after him. The chauffeur sprang to his seat and the car glided off.
+Graham just realised that there was a woman by his side whose face was
+vaguely familiar. Then the waves broke in upon his ears once more.
+
+"I was right, then, it seems," Pamela observed approvingly. "You were
+just the man for this little affair."
+
+Lutchester sighed.
+
+"Unfortunately," he confessed, "a messenger boy would have been as
+effective. I stumbled over to the chapel--rubber shoes, you observe,"
+he remarked, pointing downwards--"and soon discovered that blinds had
+been let down all round and that there were people inside. There was
+just a faint chink in one, and I caught a glimpse of several men, your
+friend Oscar amongst them. Having," he went on, "an immense regard for
+my personal safety, I was hesitating what means to adopt when the
+lights were lowered, and it seemed to me that the men were
+disappearing."
+
+"Do go on," Pamela murmured. "This is most exciting."
+
+"In a sense it was disappointing," Lutchester complained. "I had
+pictured for myself a dramatic entrance ... a quiet turning of the key,
+a soft approach--owing to my shoes," he reminded her--"a cough,
+perhaps, or a breath ... discovery, me with a revolver in my hand
+pointed to the arch-villain--'If you stir you're a dead man!' ...
+Natural collapse of the villain. With my left hand I slash the bonds
+which hold Graham, with my right I cover the miscreants. One of them,
+perhaps, might creep behind me, and I hesitate. If I move my revolver
+the other two will get the drop on me--I think that is the correct
+expression? A wonderful moment, that, Miss Van Teyl!"
+
+"But it didn't happen," she protested.
+
+"Ah! I forgot that," he acknowledged. "Still, I was prepared, I had the
+revolver all right. But as you say, it didn't happen. I made my way to
+the chapel door, let myself in, found our friend lying in a
+half-comatose state upon one of the blue plush Henry sofas, in the
+shadow of a horrible deal pulpit. I gathered that he had been left
+there to reflect upon his sins. There was a bottle of remarkably fine
+brandy within reach, which I tested, and with which I dosed our friend
+here. I then cut away his bonds, arm in arm we walked down the aisle, I
+locked up the place, threw the key away, kicked my shins half-a-dozen
+times crossing that disgusting little plot of land, climbed boldly to
+the top of the wall, and behold!"
+
+Pamela smiled upon him in congratulatory fashion.
+
+"On the whole," she said, "I am quite glad that I telephoned to you."
+
+"You showed a sound discretion," he admitted.
+
+"If he had not been lame," she confessed, "I should have sent to
+Captain Holderness."
+
+"That would have been a great mistake," Lutchester assured her.
+"Holderness is a good fellow but devoid of imagination. He is great on
+constituted authority. He would have probably marched up with a squad
+of heavy-footed policemen--and found nothing."
+
+"Yet I must confess," Pamela persisted, with a frankness unaccountable
+even to herself, "that if I could have thought of any one else I should
+never have telephoned to you."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because I should not have classified you as being of the adventurous
+type," she declared.
+
+Lutchester looked injured.
+
+"After all," he protested, "that is not my fault. That is due to your
+singular lack of perception. However, I am able to return the
+compliment. I, for my part, should have thought that you were more
+interested in the fashions than in paying exceedingly rash visits to
+degenerate orientals and negroes."
+
+"Perhaps some day," she remarked, "we may understand one another
+better."
+
+He met her gaze with a certain seriousness.
+
+"I hope that we may," he said.
+
+For some reason they were both silent for a moment. Her tone had
+changed a little when she spoke again.
+
+"You are sure," she asked, "that you do not mind my leaving the rest of
+this affair in your hands? There are reasons, which I cannot tell you
+of just now, which make me anxious not to appear in it at all."
+
+"I accept the charge as a privilege," he assented. "We are within a few
+yards of my rooms now. I promise you that I will look after Captain
+Graham and advise him as to the proper course for him to pursue."
+
+The car came to a standstill.
+
+"This then," she said, holding out her hand, "will be good-by for the
+present."
+
+He held her fingers for a moment without reply. Quite suddenly she
+decided that she liked him. Then he lifted Graham, who was half asleep,
+half unconscious, to his feet, and assisted him from the car.
+
+"Where shall I tell the man to go to?" he inquired.
+
+"He knows," she answered with sudden taciturnity.
+
+"Wherever it may be, then," he replied, "bon voyage!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+It was about half-an-hour later when Sandy Graham opened his eyes and
+began to feel the life once more warm in his veins. He was seated in
+the most comfortable easy-chair of John Lutchester's bachelor
+sitting-room. By his side was a coffee equipage and a decanter of
+brandy. His head still throbbed, and his bones ached, but his mind was
+beginning to grow clearer. Lutchester, who had been seated at the
+writing table, swung round in his chair at the sound of his guest's
+movement.
+
+"Feeling better, eh?" he asked.
+
+"I am all right now," was the somewhat shaky reply. "Got a head like a
+turnip and a tongue like a lime-kiln, but I'm beginning--to feel
+myself."
+
+"How's your memory?"
+
+"Hazy. Let me see.... My God, I've been robbed, haven't I!"
+
+"So I imagine," Lutchester replied. "You rather asked for it, didn't
+you?"
+
+Graham moved uneasily in his place. He had suddenly the feeling of
+being back at school--and in the presence of the headmaster.
+
+"I suppose I did in a way," he admitted, "but at Henry's--why, I've
+always looked upon the place as a club more than anything else."
+
+"I am afraid that I can't agree with you there," Lutchester observed.
+"I should consider Henry's a remarkably cosmopolitan restaurant, where
+a man in your position should exercise more than even ordinary
+restraint."
+
+"I suppose I was wrong," Graham muttered, "but I had been working for
+about ten hours on end, and then rushed up to London in the car to try
+and keep my appointment with Holderness."
+
+"Stop anywhere on the way?"
+
+"We had a few drinks," Graham confessed. "I was so done up. Perhaps I
+had more than I meant to. However, it's no use bothering about that
+now. I've been robbed, and that's all there is about it. Could we get
+on to Scotland Yard from here?"
+
+"We could, but I don't think we will," Lutchester replied.
+
+Graham was puzzled.
+
+"Why not?" he demanded. "That formula was the most wonderful thing that
+has ever been put together, and the whole thing's so simple. I've been
+afraid every second that some one else might stumble upon it."
+
+"It is without doubt a great loss," Lutchester admitted. "All the same,
+I don't fancy that it's a Scotland Yard business exactly. Have you any
+idea who robbed you?"
+
+Graham paused to think. His eyes were still troubled and uncertain.
+
+"It's coming back to me," he muttered. "I remember that beastly barn of
+a chapel. There were Jules, and that musician fellow, and the big
+American. He emptied my pockets ... Why, of course, I remember how
+angry he was ... My pocketbook was gone! They left me alone to write
+out the formula again, and then you came.... How on earth did you
+tumble on to my being there, Lutchester?"
+
+"It was Miss Pamela Van Teyl whom you must thank," Lutchester told him,
+"not me. It seems she knew more about Henry's than any of us. She'd
+come up against some of the crew in Berlin, and she guessed they were
+holding you for that formula. She got the key out of one of those men
+and then telephoned to me for my help."
+
+"And I never even thanked her," Graham murmured weakly.
+
+There was a moment's silence. The recovering man's consciousness of his
+position and of events was evidently as yet incomplete. He sat up
+suddenly in his chair, gripping the sides of it. His eyes were large
+with reminiscent trouble.
+
+"My pocketbook had gone when they searched me," he muttered.
+
+"Are you sure that you had it with you when you came into Henry's?"
+Lutchester inquired.
+
+"Absolutely certain."
+
+"Do you think you can remember now what happened when you went
+upstairs?"
+
+"I reached the lavatory all right--you were with me then, weren't you?"
+Graham said reflectively. "I hung up my coat while I washed, but there
+was no one else in the room. Then you went downstairs and I brushed my
+hair and just stopped to light a cigarette. You know that on the
+right-hand side of the landing there is a room where the musicians
+change. Joseph, that black devil, was standing in the doorway. He
+grinned as I came into sight. 'Lady wants to speak to you for a moment,
+Captain Graham,' he said. Well, you know how harmless the fellow
+looks--just a good-natured, smiling nigger. I never dreamed of anything
+wrong. As a matter of fact, I thought that Peggy Vincent--that's a
+young lady I often go to Henry's with--wanted to have a word with me
+before I joined our party. I stepped inside the room, and that's just
+about all I can remember. It must have been jolly quick. His arm shot
+round my neck, the door was closed, and that other brute--Hassan, I
+think it was--held something over my face."
+
+"But that room was searched," Lutchester reminded him.
+
+"Well I came to just a little," Graham explained, "I found that I was
+in a sort of cupboard place, behind the lockers these fellows have for
+their clothes. It opens with a spring lock, and you'd never notice it,
+searching the room."
+
+"Who was the first person you saw when you recovered consciousness?"
+
+Graham's forehead was wrinkled in the effort to remember.
+
+"I can't quite get hold of it," he confessed, "but I have a sort of
+fancy I can't altogether get rid of that there was a woman about."
+
+Lutchester looked at the end of the cigarette he had just lit.
+
+"A woman?" he repeated. "That's queer."
+
+"I can't remember anything definitely until I woke up in that chapel,"
+Graham continued, "but when they searched me and found that the
+pocketbook had gone, Fischer, the big American, muttered some woman's
+name. I was queer just at the moment, but it sounded very much to me
+like Miss Van Teyl's. He rang her up on the telephone."
+
+"Did they suspect Miss Van Teyl, then, of having taken your
+pocketbook?"
+
+Graham shook his head.
+
+"I lost the drift of things just then," he admitted. "She couldn't have
+done, in any case. Forgive me, but aren't we wasting time, Mr.
+Lutchester? We must do something. Couldn't you ring up Scotland Yard
+now?"
+
+"I certainly could," Lutchester assented, "but, as I told you just now,
+I don't think that I will."
+
+Graham stared at him.
+
+"But why not?"
+
+"For certain very definite reasons with which you needn't trouble
+yourself just now," Lutchester pronounced. "The formula has gone,
+without a doubt, but it certainly isn't in the hands of any of the
+people at Henry's."
+
+"But there's that American fellow--Fischer!" Graham exclaimed. "He was
+the ringleader!"
+
+"Just so," Lutchester murmured thoughtfully. "However, he hasn't got
+the formula."
+
+"But he planned the attack upon me," Graham protested. "He is an
+enemy--a German--sheltering himself under his American naturalization.
+Surely we're going for him?"
+
+"He's a wrong 'un, of course," Lutchester admitted, "but he hasn't got
+the formula."
+
+"But we must do something!" Graham continued, his anger rising as his
+strength returned. "Why, the place is a perfect den of conspirators! I
+expect Ferrani himself is in it, and there's that other maitre d'hotel,
+Jules, and those black beasts, Joseph and Hassan, besides Fischer. My
+God, they shall pay for this!"
+
+Lutchester nodded.
+
+"I dare say they will," he admitted, "but not quite in the way you are
+thinking of."
+
+Graham half rose to his feet.
+
+"Look here," he said, "I'm sane enough now, aren't I, and in my proper
+senses? You are not going to suggest that we don't turn the police on
+to that damned place?"
+
+"I certainly am," was the brief reply.
+
+Graham was aghast.
+
+"What do you mean to do, then?"
+
+"Leave them alone for the present. Not one of them has the formula. Not
+one of them even knows where it is."
+
+"But the attack upon me?"
+
+"You asked for all you got," Lutchester told him curtly, "and perhaps a
+little more."
+
+The first tinge of colour came back to Graham's cheeks. His eyes
+flashed with anger.
+
+"Perhaps I did," he admitted, "but that doesn't alter the fact that I'm
+going to have some of my own back out of them."
+
+Lutchester crossed his legs and turned round in his chair. For the
+first time he directly faced his visitor. His tone, though not
+unkindly, was imperative.
+
+"Young fellow," he said, "you'll have to listen to me about this."
+
+A smouldering sense of revolt suddenly found words.
+
+"Listen to you? What the devil have you got to do with it?" Graham
+demanded.
+
+"I hate to remind any one of an obligation," Lutchester answered, "but
+I am under the impression that, together with Miss Van Teyl, of course,
+I rescued you from an exceedingly inconvenient situation."
+
+"I haven't had time yet to tell you how grateful I am," Graham said
+awkwardly. "You were a brick, of course, and how you and Miss Van Teyl
+tumbled on to the whole thing I can't imagine. But I don't understand
+what you're getting at now. You can't suggest that I am to leave these
+fellows alone and not give information to the police?"
+
+"The character of the place," Lutchester assured him, "is already
+perfectly well known to the heads of the police. The matter will be
+dealt with, but not in the way you suggest. And so far as regards
+Fischer, I do not wish him interfered with for the present."
+
+"You do not wish him interfered with?" Graham repeated. "Where the
+devil do you come in at all?"
+
+"You can leave me out of the matter for the present. You want the
+formula back, don't you?"
+
+"My God, yes!" Graham muttered fervently. "It's all very well to give
+one a pencil and a piece of paper and say 'Write it out,' but there are
+calculations and proportions--"
+
+"Precisely," Lutchester interrupted. "You want it back again. Why not
+let Fischer do the business? He has an idea where it's gone. The thing
+to do seems to me to follow him."
+
+"To follow Fischer?" Graham repeated vaguely.
+
+"Precisely. If he thinks the formula is in England, Fischer will stay
+in England. If he thinks that it has gone abroad he will go abroad. If
+we leave him free we can watch which he does."
+
+Graham swallowed half a wineglassful of the brandy by his side. Then he
+leaned forward.
+
+"Look here," he said, "you'll forgive me if I repeat myself and ask you
+once more--what the hell has all this got to do with you?"
+
+"Just this much," Lutchester replied, "that I insist upon your taking
+the course of action in this matter which I propose."
+
+"You mean," Graham protested, working himself gradually into a state of
+wrath, "that I am to go back to my rooms as though nothing had
+happened, see Holderness and the others to-morrow, and not have a word
+of explanation to offer? That I am to leave those blackguards at
+Henry's to try their dirty games on some one else, and let Fischer, the
+man who was fully inclined to become my murderer, go away unharmed? I
+think not, Mr. Lutchester. I am much obliged for your help, but you are
+talking piffle."
+
+"What do you propose to do, then?"
+
+"I am going round to Scotland Yard myself."
+
+Lutchester rose to his feet.
+
+"Stay where you are for a minute, please," he begged.
+
+He passed into a smaller room, and Graham could hear faintly the sound
+of the telephone. In a minute or two his host returned.
+
+"Go in there and speak, Graham," he invited. "You will find some one
+you know at the other end."
+
+Graham did as he was bidden, and Lutchester closed the door after him.
+For a few minutes the latter sat in his chair, smoking quietly, his
+eyes fixed upon the fire. Then his unwilling guest reappeared. He came
+into the room a little unsteadily and looked with new eyes at the man
+who seemed so unaccountably to have taken over the control of his
+affairs.
+
+"I don't understand all this," he muttered. "Who the devil are you,
+anyway, Lutchester?"
+
+"A very ordinary person, I can assure you," was the quiet reply.
+"However, you are satisfied, I suppose, that my advice is good?"
+
+"Yes, I am satisfied," Graham answered nervously. "You know that--that
+I'm under arrest?"
+
+Lutchester nodded.
+
+"Well, you're not asking for my sympathy, I suppose?" he observed
+drily.
+
+The young man flushed.
+
+"I know that I behaved like a fool," he admitted. "All the same, I've
+been working night and day for weeks on this problem. I haven't even
+been up to town once. I must say I think they seem inclined to be a
+little hard on me."
+
+"No one is going to be in the least hard on you," Lutchester assured
+him. "You have committed a frightful indiscretion, and all that is
+asked of you now is to keep your mouth shut. If you do that, I think a
+way will be found for you out of your troubles."
+
+"But what is to become of me?" Graham demanded.
+
+"I understand that you are to be taken to Northumberland to-morrow,"
+Lutchester informed him. "There you will be allowed every facility for
+fresh experiments. In the meantime, I have promised to give you a
+shakedown here for the night. You will find a soldier on guard outside
+your door, but you can treat him as your servant."
+
+"You are very kind," Graham faltered, a little vaguely. "If only I
+could understand--"
+
+Lutchester rose to his feet. His manner became more serious, his tone
+had in it a note of finality.
+
+"Captain Graham," he interrupted, "don't try to understand. I will tell
+you as much as this, if it helps you. Henry's Restaurant will be placed
+under the closest surveillance, but we wish nothing disturbed there at
+the moment until we have discovered the future plans of Mr. Oscar
+Fischer."
+
+"The big German-American," Graham muttered. "He's the man you ought to
+get hold of."
+
+"Some day I hope that we may," Lutchester declared. "For the moment,
+however, we want him undisturbed. You would scarcely believe it,
+perhaps, if I told you that the theft of your formulas is only a slight
+thing compared to the bigger business that man has on hand. There is
+something else at the back of his head which is worth heaven and earth
+to us to understand. We want the formula and we shall have it, but more
+than anything else in the world we want to know why Fischer has pledged
+his word in Berlin to bring this war to an end within three months. We
+have to find that out, and we are going to find it out--from him. You
+see, I have treated you with confidence, Captain Graham. Now let me
+show you to your room." Graham put his hand to his forehead.
+
+"I feel as though this were some sort of nightmare," he muttered. "I've
+known you for several months, Mr. Lutchester, and I have never heard
+you say a serious word. You dance at Henry's; you made a good soldier,
+they said, but you'd had enough of it in twelve months; you play
+auction bridge in the afternoons; and you talk about the war as though
+it were simply an irritating circumstance. And to-night--"
+
+Lutchester threw open the door of his own bedroom and pointed to the
+bathroom beyond.
+
+"My man has put out everything he thinks you may want," he said. "Try
+and get a good night's sleep. And, Graham."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Don't bother your head about me, and don't ask any more questions."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The _Lapland_ was two days out from Tilbury before Pamela appeared on
+deck, followed by her maid with an armful of cushions, and the deck
+steward with her rugs. She had scarcely made herself comfortable in a
+sunny corner when she was aware of the approach of a large, familiar
+figure. Her astonishment was entirely genuine.
+
+"Mr. Fischer!" she exclaimed. "Why, how on earth did you catch this
+steamer? I thought you were coming on the Thursday boat?"
+
+"Some inducement to change my mind," Mr. Fischer replied, drawing a
+chair up to her side.
+
+"Meaning me?"
+
+"I guess that's so!"
+
+"Of course, I'm exceedingly flattered," Pamela observed, "or rather I
+should be if I believed you, but I don't see how you could leave a
+supper-party at Henry's and go straight to Tilbury."
+
+"Say, how did you know I was supping at Henry's?" he inquired.
+
+"Because I was there for luncheon myself, as you know," she answered
+carelessly, "and I heard you order your table for supper."
+
+Mr. Fischer nodded reminiscently.
+
+"I always wind up with a little supper at Henry's, on my last night in
+London," he remarked. "It left me two hours to get down to Tilbury, but
+it don't take me long to start for anywhere when I once make up my
+mind. That's the American of us, I suppose. Besides, I never need much
+in the way of luggage. I keep clothes over on the other side and
+clothes in New York, and a grip always ready packed for a journey."
+
+"You're so typical," she murmured, smiling.
+
+"I don't know about that," he replied. "My business makes it necessary
+for me to be always on the go. Have you heard from your brother
+lately?"
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"Jimmy is the most terrible correspondent," she complained. "I don't
+think I've had any mail from him for two months."
+
+"You didn't know that he and I were sharing rooms together, then, in
+the Plaza Hotel, I suppose?"
+
+Pamela turned her head a little and gazed at her companion in genuine
+surprise.
+
+"Sharing rooms in the Plaza Hotel?" she repeated.... "You and Jimmy?"
+
+"I guess that's so," Mr. Fischer assented. "We were doing business
+together one day, and the subject cropped up somehow or other. Your
+brother was thinking of making a move, and I'd just been shown these
+rooms, which were a trifle on the large side for me. I made him an
+offer and he jumped at it."
+
+"I hope you're not leading James into extravagant ways," she remarked
+anxiously. "I loved his little apartment in Forty-Second Street and it
+was so inexpensive."
+
+"Your brother's share of these rooms isn't anything more than he can
+afford," Mr. Fischer assured her. "That I can promise you. I guess his
+firm is doing well just now. If they've many more clients like me they
+are."
+
+"It is very nice of you to put business in his way," Pamela said
+thoughtfully. "I wonder why you do it, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Why shouldn't I?"
+
+"Well," Pamela went on, her eyes travelling out seaward for a moment,
+"you seem to be one of those sort of men, Mr. Fischer, who never do
+anything without an object."
+
+"_Some_ powers of observation," he admitted blithely.
+
+"You have an object in being kind to Jimmy, then?"
+
+Mr. Fischer produced a cigar case and selected a cheroot.
+
+"Mind my smoking?"
+
+"Not in the least. The only time I mind things is when people don't
+answer my questions."
+
+"I was only kind of hesitating," Mr. Fischer went on, leaning back once
+more in his chair. "You want the truth, don't you?"
+
+"I never think anything else is worth while."
+
+"In the first place, then," her companion began, "your brother belongs
+to what I suppose is known as the exclusive set in New York. I am a
+Westerner with few friends there. Through him I have obtained
+introductions to several people whom it was interesting to me, from a
+business point of view, to know."
+
+"I see," Pamela murmured. "You are at least frank, Mr. Fischer."
+
+"I am going to be more frank still," he promised her. "Then another
+reason, of course, was because I liked him, and a third, which I am not
+sure wasn't the chief of all, because he was your brother."
+
+Pamela laughed gaily.
+
+"Is that necessary?"
+
+"Necessary or not, it's the truth," he assured her. "I am a man of
+quick impressions and lasting ones."
+
+"But we've never met except on a steamer," Pamela reminded him.
+
+"I know it's the fashion," Mr. Fischer said, "to turn up one's nose at
+steamer acquaintances. It isn't like that with me. You see, I don't
+have as much opportunity of meeting folk as some others, perhaps. The
+most interesting people I've known socially I've met on steamers. I sat
+at your table, side by side with you, Miss Van Teyl, for seven days a
+few months ago. I guess I'll remember those seven days as long as I
+live."
+
+Pamela turned her head and looked at him. The faintly derisive smile
+died away from her lips. The man was in earnest. A certain curiosity
+stole into her eyes as the seconds passed. She studied his hard, strong
+face, with its great jaw and prominent forehead; the mouth, a little
+too full, and belying the rest of his physiognomy, yet with its own
+peculiar strength. He had taken off his spectacles, and it seemed to
+her that the cold, flinty light of his eyes had caught for a moment
+some touch of the softer blue of the sea or the sky. Seated, he lost
+some of the awkwardness of his too great and ill-carried height. It
+seemed to her that he was at least a person to be reckoned with, either
+in friendship or enmity.
+
+"Are you an American born, Mr. Fischer," she asked him.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I was born at Offenbach," he told her, "near Frankfurt. My father
+brought me out to America when I was eleven years old."
+
+"You must find the present condition of things a little trying for
+you," she observed.
+
+Oscar Fischer put on his glasses again. He did not answer for several
+moments.
+
+"That opens up a subject, Miss Van Teyl," he said, "which some day I
+should like to discuss with you."
+
+"Why not now?" she invited. "I feel much more inclined for conversation
+than reading."
+
+"Tell me, then, to begin with," he asked thoughtfully, "on which side
+are your sympathies?"
+
+"I try to do my duty as an American citizen," she replied promptly,
+"and that is to have no sympathies. Our dear country has set the world
+an example of what neutrality should be. I think it is the duty of us
+Americans to try and bring ourselves into exactly the same line of
+feeling."
+
+He changed his position a little uneasily. His attitude became less of
+a sprawl. His eyes were fixed upon her face.
+
+"I fear," he said, "that we are going to begin by a disagreement. I do
+not consider that America has realised in the least the duties of a
+neutral nation."
+
+"You must explain that at once, if you please, before we go any
+further," Pamela insisted.
+
+"Is this neutrality?" Fischer demanded, his rather harsh voice almost
+raucous now with a touch of real feeling. "America ships daily millions
+of dollars' worth of those things that make war possible, to France, to
+Italy, above all to England. She keeps them supplied with ammunition,
+clothing, scientific instruments, food--a dozen things which make war
+easier. To Germany she sends nothing. Is that neutrality?"
+
+"But America is perfectly willing to deal in the same way with
+Germany," Pamela pointed out. "German agents can come and place their
+orders and take away whatever they want. The market is as much open to
+her as to the Allies."
+
+Fischer was sitting bolt upright in his chair now. There was a little
+spot of colour in his cheeks and his eyes flashed behind his
+spectacles. He struck the side of the chair. He was very angry.
+
+"That is Jesuitical," he declared. "It is perfectly well-known that
+Germany is not in a position to fetch munitions from America.
+Therefore, I say that there is no neutrality in supplying one side in
+the war with goods which the other is unable to procure."
+
+"Then you place upon America the onus of Germany's naval inferiority,"
+Pamela remarked drily.
+
+"Germany's maritime inferiority does not exist," Mr. Fischer protested.
+"When the moment arrives that the High Seas fleet comes out for action
+the world will know the truth."
+
+"Then hadn't it better come," Pamela suggested, "and clear the ocean
+for your commerce?"
+
+"That isn't the point," Fischer insisted. "We have wandered from the
+main issue. I say that America abandons its neutrality when it helps
+the Allies to continue the war."
+
+"I don't think you will find," Pamela replied, "that international law
+prevents any neutral country from supplying either combatant with
+munitions. If one country can fetch the things and the other can't,
+that is the misfortune of the country that can't. For one moment look
+at the matter from England's point of view. She has built up a mighty
+navy to keep the seas clear for exactly this purpose--to continue her
+commerce from abroad. Germany instead has built up a mighty army, with
+which she has overrun Europe. Germany has had the advantage from her
+army. Why shouldn't England have the advantage from her navy?"
+
+"Let me ask you the question you asked me a few minutes ago," her
+companion begged. "Were you born in America--or England?"
+
+"I was born in America," Pamela told him; "so were my parents and my
+grandparents. I claim to be American to the backbone. I claim even to
+treat any sympathies I might have in this affair as prejudices, and not
+even to allow them a single corner in my brain."
+
+Mr. Fischer sat quite still for several moments. He was struggling very
+hard to keep his temper. In the end he succeeded.
+
+"We will not, then, pursue the subject of America's neutrality," he
+said, "because it is obvious that we disagree fundamentally. But tell
+me this, now, as an American and a patriot. Which do you think would be
+better for America--That Germany and Austria won this war, or the
+Allies?"
+
+"Upon that question I have not altogether made up my mind," Pamela
+confessed.
+
+"Then there is room there for a discussion," Mr. Fischer pointed out
+eagerly. "I should like to put my views before you on this matter."
+
+"And I should love to hear them," Pamela replied, "but I feel just now
+as though we had talked enough politics. Do you know that I came up on
+deck in a state of great agitation?"
+
+"Submarine alarms from the stewardess?" Mr. Fischer suggested.
+
+"I am not afraid of submarines, but I have a most profound dislike for
+thieves," Pamela declared.
+
+"You have not had anything stolen?" he asked quickly.
+
+"I have not," Pamela replied, "but the only reason seems to be that I
+have nothing worth stealing. When I got back from luncheon this
+afternoon I found that my stateroom had been systematically searched."
+
+She turned her head a little lazily and looked at her neighbour. His
+expression was entirely sympathetic.
+
+"Your jewellery?"
+
+"Deposited with the purser."
+
+"I congratulate you," he said.
+
+"Nothing has been stolen," she observed, "but one hates the feeling of
+insecurity, all the same. Both my steward and stewardess are old
+friends. It must have been a very clever person who found his way into
+my room."
+
+"A very clever person," Mr. Fischer objected, "would have known that
+you had deposited your jewels with the purser."
+
+"If it was my jewels of which they were in search," Pamela murmured.
+"By the bye, do you remember all that fuss about the disappearance of a
+young soldier that morning at Henry's?"
+
+Fischer nodded.
+
+"I heard something about it," he confessed. "They were talking about it
+at dinner-time."
+
+"I had an idea that you might be interested," Pamela went on. "He was
+rather a foolish young man. He came into the restaurant telling every
+one at the top of his voice that he had made a great discovery! Even in
+London, which is, I should think, the most prosaic city in the world,
+there must be people who are on the lookout to pick up war secrets."
+
+"Even in London, as you remark," Fischer assented.
+
+"You didn't hear the end of the affair, I suppose?" she asked him.
+
+The steward had arrived with afternoon tea. Fischer threw into the sea
+the cigar which he had been smoking.
+
+"I do not think," he said, "that the end has been reached yet."
+
+Pamela sighed.
+
+"Les oreilles ennemies!" she quoted. "I suppose one has to be careful
+everywhere."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+It was one evening towards the end of the voyage, and about an hour
+after dinner. A huge form loomed out of the darkness, continuing its
+steady promenade along the unlit portion of the deck. Pamela, moved by
+some caprice, abandoned her caution of the last few days and called
+out.
+
+"Mr. Fischer!"
+
+He stopped short. The sparks flew from the red end of his cigar, which
+he tossed into the sea. He hastened towards her.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl?" he replied, a little hesitatingly.
+
+"How clever of you to know my voice!" she observed. "I am in the humour
+to talk. Will you sit down, please?"
+
+Mr. Fischer humbly drew a chair to her side.
+
+"I had an idea," he said, "that you had been avoiding me the last two
+or three days."
+
+"I have," she admitted.
+
+"Have I offended you, then?"
+
+"Scarcely that," she replied, "only, you see, it seemed waste of time
+to talk to you with the foils on, and a little dangerous, perhaps, to
+talk to you with them off."
+
+His face reflected his admiration.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl," he declared, "you are quite a wonderful person. I have
+never believed very much in women before. Perhaps that is the reason
+why I have never married."
+
+"Dear me, are you a woman-hater?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her steadfastly.
+
+"I have made use of women as playthings," he confessed. "Until I met
+you I never thought of them as companions, as partners."
+
+She laughed at him through the darkness, and at the sound of her laugh
+his eyes glowed.
+
+"Really, I am very much flattered," she said. "You give me credit for
+intelligence, then?"
+
+"I give you credit for every gift a woman should have," he answered
+enthusiastically. "I recognise in you the woman I have sometimes
+dreamed of."
+
+Again she laughed.
+
+"Don't tell me, Mr. Fischer," she protested, "that ever in your
+practical life you have spent a single moment in dreams?"
+
+"I have spent many," he assured her, "but they have all been since I
+knew you."
+
+Pamela sighed.
+
+"I have never been through a voyage," she observed, "without a love
+affair. Still, I never suspected you, Mr. Fischer."
+
+"You suspected me, perhaps, of other things."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I am full of suspicions about you," she admitted. "I am not going to
+tell you what they are, of course."
+
+"There is one thing of which I am guilty," he confessed. "I should like
+to tell you about it right now."
+
+"Could I guess it?"
+
+"You're clever enough."
+
+"You like me, don't you, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Better than any woman in the world," he answered promptly. "And my
+confession is--well, just that. Will you marry me?"
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"Quite early in life," she confided, "I made up my mind that I would
+never give a definite answer to any one who proposed to me on a
+steamer. I suppose it's the wind, or is it the stars, or the silence,
+or what? I have known the sanest of men, even like you, Mr. Fischer,
+become quite maudlin."
+
+"I am brimful of common sense at the present moment," he declared
+earnestly. "You and I could do great things together, if only I could
+get you to look at one certain matter from my point of view; to see it
+as I see it."
+
+"A political matter?" she inquired naively.
+
+"I want to try and persuade you," he confessed, "that America has
+everything in the world to gain from Germany's success, and everything
+to lose if the Allies should triumph in this war and Great Britain
+should continue her tyranny of the seas."
+
+"It's an extraordinarily interesting subject," Pamela admitted.
+
+"It is almost as absorbing," he declared, "as the other matter which
+just now lies even nearer to my heart."
+
+She withdrew her fingers from his sudden clutch.
+
+"Mr. Fischer," she told him, "what I said just now was quite final. I
+will not be made love to on a steamer."
+
+"When we land," he continued eagerly, "you will be coming to see your
+brother, won't you?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Of course! I am coming to the Plaza Hotel. That, I suppose, is good
+news for you, Mr. Fischer."
+
+"Of course it is," he answered, "but why do you say so?"
+
+"It will give you so many opportunities," she murmured.
+
+"Of seeing you?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Of searching my belongings."
+
+There was a moment's silence. She heard his quick breath through the
+darkness. His voice assumed its harsher tone.
+
+"You believe that it was I who searched your stateroom?"
+
+"I am sure that it was you, or some one acting for you."
+
+"What is it, then, of which I am in search?" he demanded.
+
+"Captain Graham's formula," she replied. "I think you want that a good
+deal more than you want me."
+
+"You have it then?" he asked fiercely.
+
+She sighed.
+
+"You jump so to conclusions. I didn't say so."
+
+"You went up the stairs ... you were the only person who went up just
+at that one psychological moment! He had his pocketbook with him when
+he came in--he told Holderness so."
+
+"And when you searched him it was gone," she remarked calmly. "Dear
+me!"
+
+"How do you know that I searched him?" Fischer demanded.
+
+"How dare you ask me to give away my secrets?" she replied.
+
+"Listen," he began, striving with an almost painful effort to keep his
+voice down to the level of a whisper, "you and I together, we could do
+the most marvellous things. I could let you into all my schemes. They
+are great. They will be successful. After the war is over--"
+
+He held his breath for a moment. The tramp of approaching footsteps
+warned him of the coming of an intruder. The Captain came to a
+standstill before their chairs and saluted.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl," he said, "there will be a mutiny in the saloon if you
+don't come down and sing."
+
+She almost sprang to her feet. The ship was rolling a little, and she
+laid her fingers upon his arm.
+
+"I meant to come long ago," she declared, "but Mr. Fischer has been so
+interesting. You will finish telling me your experiences another time,
+won't you?" she called out over her shoulder. "There is so much that I
+still want to hear."
+
+Fischer's reply was almost ungracious. He watched their departure in
+silence, and afterwards leaned further back in his chair. With long,
+nervous fingers he drew a black cigar from his case and lit it. Then he
+folded his arms. For more than half an hour he sat there motionless,
+smoking furiously. He looked out into the chaos of the windy darkness,
+he heard voices riding upon the seas, shrieking and calling to him,
+voices to which he had been deaf too long. The burden of these later
+years of turbulent, brazen, selfish struggling, rolled back. He had
+been a sentimentalist once, a willing seeker after things which seemed
+to have passed him by. At his age, he told himself, a man should still
+find more than one place in the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+James Van Teyl glanced curiously at the small, dark figure standing
+patiently before him, and then back again at the wireless cable which
+he held in his fingers. He was just back from a tiring day in Wall
+Street, and was reclining in the most comfortable easy-chair of his
+Hotel Plaza sitting-room.
+
+"Gee!" he murmured. "This beats me. The last thing I should have
+thought we wanted here was a valet. The fellow who looks after this
+suite has scarcely anything else to do. What did you say your name
+was?"
+
+"Nikasti, sir."
+
+Van Teyl carefully reconsidered the cable. It certainly seemed to leave
+no room for misunderstanding.
+
+Please engage for our service, as valet, Nikasti. See that he enters on
+his duties at once. Hope land this evening. Your sister on board sends
+love.--F.
+
+"Well that seems clear enough," the young man muttered, thrusting the
+form into his waistcoat pocket. "You're here to stay, I guess, Nikasti?
+I see you've brought your kit along."
+
+"In case you decided to engage me, sir," the man replied.
+
+"Oh, you are engaged right enough," Van Teyl assured him. "You'd better
+make the best job you can of putting out my evening clothes. If you
+ring for the floor valet, he'll help you. The bedrooms are through that
+door."
+
+"Very good, sir!"
+
+"I am going down to the barber's now," Van Teyl continued, rising to
+his feet. "Just remember this, Nikasti--what a name, by the bye!"
+
+"I could be called Kato," the man suggested.
+
+"Kato for me all the time," his prospective employer agreed. "Well,
+listen. My sister, Miss Van Teyl, arrives from Europe on the _Lapland_
+this evening. If she comes in or rings up, say I'm here and I want to
+see her at once. You understand?"
+
+"I understand, sir."
+
+Van Teyl strolled out, and Kato disappeared into the inner room. The
+floor valet, dressed in the dark blue livery of the hotel, was already
+laying out his master's dinner clothes. He eyed the intruder a little
+truculently.
+
+"Who are you, anyway?" he inquired.
+
+"My name is Nikasti," was the quiet reply. "Mr. Van Teyl has engaged me
+as his valet, to wait upon him and Mr. Fischer."
+
+The man laid down the shirt into which he was fixing the studs.
+
+"That's some news," he remarked bitterly.
+
+"To wait on Mr. Van Teyl and Mr. Fischer, eh? What the hell do they
+want you for?"
+
+Nikasti shook his head slowly. He was very small, and his dark eyes
+seemed filled with melancholy.
+
+"It is not for a very long time," he ventured.
+
+"Long enough to do me out of my five dollars' tip every week," the man
+grumbled. "I'm a married man, too, and a good American. Blast you
+fellows, coming and taking our jobs away! Can't think what they let you
+into the country for."
+
+"I am sorry," Nikasti murmured.
+
+"Your sorrow don't bring me in my five dollars," the valet retorted
+bitterly. "There's only two suites on this floor to work for, anyway,
+and this is the only one worth a cent."
+
+"I am taking the situation," the other explained, "for the sake of
+experience. I do not wish to rob you of your earnings. I will pay you
+the five dollars a week while I stay here. You shall help me with the
+work."
+
+"That's a deal, my little yellow-skinned kid," the valet agreed in a
+tone of relief. "I'll show you where the things are kept."
+
+His new coadjutor bowed.
+
+"The telephone is ringing in the master's room," he observed. "You
+shall remain here, and I will answer it."
+
+"That goes, Jappy," the man acquiesced. "If it's a young lady take her
+name, but don't say that Mr. Van Teyl's about. Forward young baggages
+some of them are."
+
+Nikasti glided from the room, closed the door, and approached the
+telephone receiver.
+
+"Yes," he acknowledged, "these are the rooms of Mr. Van Teyl... No,
+madam, Mr. Van Teyl is not in at present."
+
+There was a moment's pause. Nikasti's face was impenetrable as he
+listened, but his eyes glowed.
+
+"Yes, I understand, madam," he said softly. "You are Miss Van Teyl, and
+you wish to speak to your brother. The moment Mr. Van Teyl returns I
+will ring you up or fetch you."
+
+He replaced the receiver upon its hook, and returned to the bedroom.
+For some little time he was initiated into the mysteries of his new
+master's studs, boots and shoes, and general taste in wearing apparel.
+Then the latter entered the sitting-room, and Nikasti obeyed his
+summons.
+
+"Anyone called me up?" he inquired.
+
+"No one, sir."
+
+Van Teyl glanced at the clock in an undecided manner.
+
+"I'll change right away," he decided. "Just set things to rights in
+here, fill my cigarette case, and hang round by the telephone."
+
+Nikasti bowed, and the young man disappeared into the inner room. His
+new attendant waited until the door was closed. Then he removed the
+receiver from its hook, laid it upon the table, and moved stealthily
+towards the open fireplace. For several moments he remained in an
+attitude of listening, then with quick, lithe fingers he drew from his
+pocket a cable dispatch, reread it with an air of complete absorption,
+and committed it to the flames. He watched it burn, and turned away
+from the contemplation of its grey ashes with a sigh of content.
+Suddenly he started. The door of the sitting-room had been opened and
+closed. A tall, broad-shouldered man, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, a
+long travelling coat and a Homburg hat, was standing watching him.
+Nikasti was only momentarily disturbed. His look of gentle inquiry was
+perfect.
+
+"You wish to see my master--Mr. Van Teyl?" he asked.
+
+"Where is he?" Fischer demanded.
+
+"He is dressing in the next apartment. I will take him your name."
+
+Fischer threw his coat and hat upon the table.
+
+"That'll do directly," he replied. "So you're Nikasti?"
+
+They looked at one another for a moment. The face of the Japanese was
+smooth, bland, and imperturbable. His eyes were innocent even of any
+question. Fischer's forehead was wrinkled, and his brows drawn close
+together.
+
+"I am Nikasti," the other acknowledged--"Kato Nikasti. Mr. Van Teyl has
+just engaged me as his valet."
+
+"You can take off the gloves," Fischer told him. "I am Oscar Fischer."
+
+"Oscar Fischer," Nikasti repeated.
+
+"Yes! ... Burning something when I came in weren't you? Looked like a
+cable, eh?"
+
+"A dispatch from London," Nikasti confided.
+
+"Nothing that would interest me, eh?"
+
+"It was a family message," was the calm response. "It did not concern
+the affair which is between us."
+
+"How came you to speak English like this?" Fischer inquired.
+
+"I was at Oxford University for two years," Nikasti told him, "and in
+the Embassy at London for five more."
+
+"Before you took up your present job, eh?"
+
+Nikasti assented silently. Fischer glanced around as though to make
+sure that they were still alone.
+
+"I have the communication with me," he announced, "which we are to
+discuss. The terms of our proposal are clearly set out, and they are
+signed by the Highest of all himself. The letter embodying them was
+handed to me three weeks ago to-day in Berlin. Have you been to
+Washington?"
+
+Nikasti shook his head.
+
+"I do not go to Washington," he said. "You will understand that
+diplomatically, as you would put it, I do not exist. Neither is it
+necessary. I am here to listen."
+
+Fischer nodded.
+
+"There need be very little delay, then," he observed, "before we get to
+work."
+
+Nikasti bowed and raised his forefinger in warning.
+
+"I think," he whispered, "that Mr. Van Teyl has finished dressing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Van Teyl, as he hastened forward to meet his friend, presented at first
+sight a very good type of the well-groomed, athletic young American. He
+was over six feet tall, with smooth, dark hair brushed back from his
+forehead, a strong, clean-shaven face and good features. Only, as he
+drew nearer, there was evident a slight, unnatural quivering at the
+corner of his lips. The cordiality of his greeting, too, was a little
+overdone.
+
+"Welcome home, Fischer! Why, man, you're looking fine. Had a pleasant
+voyage?"
+
+"Storms for the first few days--after that all right," Fischer replied.
+
+"Any submarines?"
+
+"Not a sight of one. Seen your sister yet?"
+
+"Not yet. I've been waiting about for a telephone message. She hadn't
+arrived, a few minutes ago."
+
+Fischer frowned.
+
+"I want us three to meet--you and she and I--the first moment she sets
+foot in the hotel," he declared.
+
+"What's the hurry?" Van Teyl demanded. "You must have seen plenty of
+her the last ten days."
+
+"That," Fischer insisted, "was a different matter. See here, Jimmy,
+I'll be frank with you."
+
+He walked to the door of the bedroom, opened it, and looked inside. Its
+sole occupant was Nikasti, who was at the far end, putting away some
+clothes. Fischer closed the door firmly and returned.
+
+"I want you to understand this, James," he began. "Your sister is
+meddling in certain things she'd best leave alone."
+
+Van Teyl lit a cigarette.
+
+"No use talking to me," he observed. "Pamela's her own mistress, and
+she's gone her own way ever since she came of age."
+
+"She's got to quit," Fischer pronounced. "That's all there is about it.
+You and I will have to talk this out. Where are you dining?"
+
+"Downstairs," Van Teyl replied gloomily. "I was thinking of waiting for
+Pamela."
+
+"You leave word to have your people let you know directly she arrives,"
+Fischer advised, "and come along with me."
+
+Van Teyl allowed himself to be led towards the door. Nikasti, with a
+due sense of his new duties, glided past them, rang for the lift, and
+watched them descend. Fischer turned at once towards the dining room.
+
+"Thank God we're in a civilised country," he observed, "and that I
+don't have to change when I don't want to!"
+
+They found a quiet table, and Fischer, displaying much interest in the
+menu, ordered a somewhat extensive dinner.
+
+"Grapefruit and Maryland chicken are worth coming back to," he
+declared. "Now see here, James, let's get to business. You've got to
+help me with your sister."
+
+"But how?" Van Teyl demanded. "Pamela and I are good pals, of course,
+but she has a will of her own in all she does, and I don't fancy that
+anything I could say would influence her very much."
+
+"There are two things about your sister," Fischer continued. "The first
+is that she's got to quit this secret service business she's got
+herself mixed up in."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense!" Van Teyl exclaimed. "Pamela doesn't care a fig
+about politics."
+
+Fischer grunted scornfully.
+
+"You don't know much about your sister, young fellow," he said.
+"Internal politics over here may not interest her a cent, but she's
+crazy about America as a country, and she's shrewd enough to see things
+coming that a great many of you over here aren't looking for. Anyway,
+she came bang up against me in a little scheme I had on the night
+before I left Europe, and somewhere about her she's got concealed a
+document which I'd gladly buy for a quarter of a million dollars."
+
+Van Teyl drank off his second cocktail.
+
+"Some money!" he observed. "How did she come by the prize?"
+
+"Played up for it, just as I did," Fischer replied. "She was clever
+enough to make use of my scaffolding, and got up the ladder first. I'm
+not squealing, but I've got to have that document, whatever it costs
+me."
+
+Van Teyl was silent for a moment. There was an undercurrent of
+something threatening in his companion's manner, of which he had taken
+note.
+
+"And the second thing you mentioned?" he asked. "What is that?"
+
+Fischer, as though to give due emphasis to his statement, indulged in a
+brief pause. Then he leaned a little forward and spoke very slowly and
+very forcibly.
+
+"I want to marry her," he declared.
+
+Van Teyl learned back in his chair and gazed at his vis-a-vis in blank
+astonishment.
+
+"You must be a damned fool, Fischer!" he exclaimed.
+
+"You think so?" was the unruffled reply. "I wonder why?"
+
+"I'll tell you why, if you want to know," Van Teyl continued bluntly.
+"I know of four of the richest and best-looking young men in America,
+two ambassadors, an English peer, and an Italian prince, who have
+proposed to Pamela during the last twelve months alone. She refused
+every one of them."
+
+"Well," Fischer remarked, "she must marry some time."
+
+Van Teyl looked at him insolently.
+
+"I shouldn't think you'd have a dog's chance," he pronounced.
+
+There was a little glitter behind Fischer's spectacles.
+
+"Up till now," he admitted smoothly, "I have not been fortunate. I must
+confess, however, that I was hoping for your good offices."
+
+"Pamela wouldn't take the slightest notice of anything I might say,"
+Van Teyl declared. "Besides, I should hate you to marry her."
+
+"A little blunt, are you not, my young friend?" Fischer remarked
+amiably. "Still, to continue, there is also the matter of that
+document. I must confess that I exercised all my ingenuity to obtain
+possession of it on the steamer."
+
+"You would!" Van Teyl muttered.
+
+"Your sister, however," Fischer continued, "was wise enough to have it
+locked up in the purser's safe the moment she set foot upon the
+steamer. She gave me the slip when she got it back, and eluded me,
+somehow, on the quay. She will scarcely have had time to part with it
+yet, though. When she arrives here to-night, it will in all probability
+be in her possession."
+
+"Well?" Van Teyl demanded. "You don't suggest that I should rob her of
+it, I suppose?"
+
+"Not at all," Fischer replied. "On the other hand, you might very well
+induce her to give it up voluntarily, or at least to treat with me."
+
+"You don't know Pamela," was Van Teyl's curt reply.
+
+"I know her sufficiently," Fischer went on, leaning over the table, "to
+believe that she would sacrifice a great deal to save her brother from
+Sing Sing."
+
+Van Teyl took the thrust badly. He started as though he had been
+stabbed, and his face became almost ghastly in its pallor. He tossed
+off a glass of wine hastily.
+
+"Just what do you mean by that?" he asked thickly.
+
+"Are you prepared," Fischer continued, "to have me visit your office
+to-morrow morning and examine my accounts and securities in the
+presence of your partners?"
+
+"Why not?" Van Teyl faltered. "What the hell do you mean?"
+
+"I mean, James Van Teyl," his companion declared, "that I should find
+you a matter of a hundred thousand dollars short. I mean that you've
+realised on some of my securities, gambled on your own account with the
+proceeds, and lost. You did this as regards one stock at least, with a
+forged transfer, which I hold."
+
+Van Teyl looked almost piteously around. Life seemed suddenly to have
+become an unreal thing--the crowds of well-dressed diners, the gentle
+splashing of the water from the fountains in the winter garden, the
+distant murmuring of music from behind the canopy of palms. So this was
+the end of it! All that week he had hoped against hope. He had been
+told of a sure thing. Next week he had meant to have a great gamble.
+Everything was to have gone his way, after all. And now it was too
+late. Fischer knew, and Fischer was a cruel man!...
+
+The unnatural silence came to an end. Only Fischer's voice seemed to
+come from a long way off.
+
+"Drink your wine, James Van Teyl," he advised, "and listen to me.
+You've been under obligations to me from the start. I meant you to be.
+I brought a great business to your firm, and I insisted upon having you
+interested. I had a motive, as I have for most things I do. You are
+well placed socially in New York, and I am not. You are also above
+suspicion, which I am not. It suited me to take this suite in the
+Plaza, nominally in our joint names, but to pay the whole account
+myself. It suited me because I required the shelter of your social
+position. You understand?"
+
+"I always understand," Van Teyl muttered.
+
+"Just so. Only, whereas you simply thought me a snob, I had in reality
+a different and very definite purpose. We come now, however, to your
+present obligation to me. I can, if I choose, tear up your forged
+transfer, submit to the loss of my money, and leave you secure. I shall
+do so if you are able to induce your sister to hand over to me those
+few lines of writing--to which, believe me, she has no earthly
+right--and to accept me as a prospective suitor."
+
+Van Teyl was drinking steadily now, but every mouthful of food seemed
+almost to choke him. Red-eyed and defiant, he faced his torturer.
+
+"You're talking rot!" he declared. "Pamela wouldn't marry you if you
+were the last man on earth, and if she's got anything she wants to
+keep, she'll keep it."
+
+"And see her brother disgraced," Fischer reminded him, "tried at the
+Criminal Court for theft and sent to Sing Sing? It's a good name in New
+York, yours, you know. The Van Teyls have held up their heads high for
+more than one generation. Your sister will not fancy seeing it dragged
+down into the mire."
+
+For a single moment the young man seemed about to throw himself upon
+his companion, Fischer, perfectly unmoved, watched him, nevertheless,
+like a cat.
+
+"Better sit tight," he enjoined. "Drop it now or people will be
+watching us. I have ordered some of the old brandy. A liqueur or two
+will steady you, perhaps. Afterwards we will go upstairs and take your
+sister into our confidence."
+
+Van Teyl nodded.
+
+"Very well," he agreed hoarsely. "We'll hear what Pamela has to say."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Nikasti, with a low bow, watched the disappearance of the lift into
+which his two new masters, James Van Teyl and Oscar Fischer, had
+stepped. He waited until the indicator registered its safe arrival on
+the ground floor. Then he slowly retraced his steps along the corridor,
+entered the sitting-room, and took up the telephone receiver, which was
+still lying upon the table.
+
+"Will you give me number 77," he asked--"Miss Van Teyl's suite?"
+
+There was a moment's silence--then a voice at the other end to which he
+made obeisance.
+
+"It is Miss Van Teyl who speaks? I am Mr. Van Teyl's valet. Mr. Van
+Teyl is here now and will be glad if you will come in."
+
+He replaced the receiver, listened and waited. In a few moments there
+was the sound of a light footstep outside. The door was opened and
+Pamela entered. She was still wearing the grey tailor-made costume in
+which she had left the steamer.
+
+"Why, where is Mr. Van Teyl?" she asked, looking around the room. "I
+have been ringing up for the last ten minutes and couldn't get any
+answer. I did not realise that it was the next suite."
+
+"Mr. Van Teyl is close at hand, madam," Nikasti replied. "If you will
+kindly be seated, I will fetch him."
+
+"How long have you been valet here?" Pamela asked curiously.
+
+"For a few hours only, madam," was the grave reply. "If you will be so
+good as to wait."
+
+He bowed low and left the room. Pamela took up an evening paper and for
+a few minutes buried herself in its contents. Then suddenly she held it
+away from her and listened. A queer and unaccountable impulse inspired
+her with a certain mistrust. There was no sound of movement in the
+adjoining bedchamber, nor any sign of her brother's presence. She
+opened the door and peered in. It was empty and in darkness. Then,
+moved by that same unaccountable impulse, she crossed the room and
+listened at the door which led into her own suite, and which she
+perceived was bolted on this side as well as her own. She listened at
+first idly, afterwards breathlessly. In a few moments she was convinced
+that her senses were not playing her false. Some one was moving
+stealthily about in her room, the key to which was even at that moment
+in her hand. She hastened to the door, to be confronted by another
+surprise. The handle turned but the door refused to open. She was
+locked in.
+
+Pamela was both generous and insistent in the matter of bells. She
+found four, and she rang them all together. The consequences were
+speedy, and in their way satisfactory. Nikasti himself, a breathless
+chambermaid, a hurt but dignified waiter, and the floor valet, who had
+not even stopped to put on his coat, entered together. They seemed a
+little stupefied at finding Pamela alone and no sign of any
+disturbance.
+
+"Why was I locked in here?" Pamela demanded indignantly, taking them
+en bloc.
+
+There was a little chorus of non-comprehension. Nikasti stepped
+forward, waved to the others to be silent, and bowed almost to the
+ground.
+
+"It was a mistake easily to be understood, madam," he explained. "The
+handle is a little stiff, perhaps, but the door was not locked. We all
+reached here together, I myself barely a yard in advance. No key was
+used--and behold!"
+
+Pamela was disposed to argue, but a moment's reflection induced her to
+change her mind. This falsehood of Nikasti's was at least interesting.
+She waved the hotel servants away.
+
+"I am sorry to have troubled you," she said. "I will remember it when I
+pay my bill."
+
+They took their leave, Nikasti showing them out. When the last had
+departed, he turned back to the centre table, from the other side of
+which Pamela was watching him curiously.
+
+"I cannot imagine," she remarked, "how I could have made such a mistake
+about the door. I tried it twice or three times and it certainly seemed
+to me to be locked."
+
+Nikasti moved a step nearer towards her. Something of the servility of
+his manner had gone. For the first time she looked at him closely,
+appreciated the tense immobility of his features, the still,
+penetrating light of his cold eyes. A queer premonition of trouble for
+a moment unsteadied her.
+
+"There was no mistake," he said softly. "The door was locked."
+
+Even then she did not fully understand the position. She leaned a
+little towards him.
+
+"It was locked?" she repeated.
+
+"I locked it," he told her. "It is locked now, securely. I have been
+searching in your room for something which I did not find. I think that
+you had better give it to me. It will save trouble."
+
+"Are you mad?" she demanded breathlessly.
+
+"Do I seem so?" he replied. "There is no person more sane than I. I
+require from you the formula of the new explosive, which you stole in
+Henry's restaurant eleven days ago."
+
+The sense of mystery passed. It was simply trouble of the ordinary sort
+from an unexpected source.
+
+"Dear me!" she murmured. "Every one seems interested in my little
+adventure. How did you hear about it?"
+
+"I destroyed the cable telling me of all that happened only a few
+minutes ago," he explained. "It was the foolish talk of the young
+inventor which gave his secret to the world to scramble for."
+
+"It was very clever of your informant," she remarked, "to suggest that
+I was the fortunate thief. Why not Oscar Fischer? It was his plot, not
+mine."
+
+The eyes of the little Japanese seemed suddenly to narrow. He realised
+quite well that she was talking simply to gain time.
+
+"Madam," he insisted, "the formula. It is for my country, and for my
+country I would risk much."
+
+"I do not doubt it," she replied; "but if I hold it, I hold it for my
+country, too, and there is nothing you would risk for Japan from which
+I should shrink for America."
+
+He laid his hands upon the table. She turned her ring and clenched her
+hand. She could see his spring coming, realised in those few seconds
+that here was an opponent of more desperate and subtle calibre than
+Joseph. Whether her wits might have failed her, fate remained her
+friend. There was a knock at the door.
+
+"You hear?" she cried breathlessly. "There is some one there. Shall I
+call out?"
+
+His hands and knee were gone from the table. He was once more his old
+self, so completely the servant that for a moment even Pamela was
+puzzled. It seemed as though the events of the last few seconds might
+have been part of a disordered dream. Nikasti played to the cue of her
+fevered question and entirely ignored them. He opened the door with a
+respectful flourish--and John Lutchester walked in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Pamela's first shock of surprise did not readily pass. In the first
+place, John Lutchester's appearance in America at all was entirely
+unexpected. In the second, by what possible means could he have arrived
+at this precise and psychological moment?
+
+"You!" she exclaimed, a little helplessly. "Mr. Lutchester!"
+
+He smiled as he shook hands. Nikasti had slipped noiselessly from the
+room. Pamela made no effort to detain him. She had a curious feeling
+that the things which had passed between them concerned their two
+selves only. So had no desire whatever to hand him over to retributive
+justice.
+
+"You are surprised," he observed. "So far as my presence here is
+concerned, I knew quite well that I was coming some time ago, but it
+was one of those matters, you understand, Miss Van Teyl, that one is
+scarcely at liberty to talk about. I am here in connection with my
+work."
+
+"Your work," she repeated weakly. "I thought that you were in the
+Ministry of Munitions?"
+
+"Precisely," he admitted. "I have a travelling inspectorship. You see,
+I don't mind telling you this, but it is just as well, if you will
+forgive my mentioning it, Miss Van Teyl, that these things are not
+spoken of to any one. My business over here is supposed to be secret. I
+am going round some of the factories from which we are drawing
+supplies."
+
+She drew a long breath and began to feel a little more like herself.
+
+"Well, after this," she declared, "I shall be surprised at nothing. I
+have had one shock already this evening, and you are the second."
+
+"The first, I trust, was not disagreeable?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Without flattering you," she answered, "I think I could say that I
+prefer the second."
+
+"I had an idea," Lutchester remarked diffidently, "that my arrival
+seemed either opportune or inopportune--I could not quite tell which.
+Were you in any way troubled or embarrassed by the presence of the
+little Japanese gentleman?"
+
+"Of course not," she replied. "Why, he is Jimmy's valet."
+
+"How absurd of me!" Lutchester murmured. "By the bye, if Jimmy is your
+brother--Mr. Van Teyl--I have a letter to him from a pal in town--Dicky
+Green. It was to present it that I found my way up here this evening. I
+was told that he might put me in the way of a little golf during my
+spare time over here."
+
+He produced the note and laid it upon the table. Pamela glanced at it
+and then at Lutchester. He was carefully dressed in dinner clothes,
+black tie and white waistcoat. He was, as usual, perfectly groomed and
+immaculate. He had what she could only describe to herself as an
+everyday air about him. He seemed entirely free from any mental
+pressure or the wear and tear of great events.
+
+"Golf?" she repeated wonderingly. "You expect to have a little spare
+time, then?"
+
+"Well, I hope so," Lutchester replied. "One must have exercise. By the
+bye," he went on, "is your brother in, do you happen to know? Perhaps
+it would be more convenient if I came round in the morning? I am
+staying in the hotel."
+
+"Oh, for goodness sake, don't go away," she begged. "Jimmy will be here
+presently, for certain. To tell you the truth, we have been rather
+playing hide-and-seek this evening, but it hasn't been altogether his
+fault. Please sit down over there--you will find cigarettes on the
+sideboard--and talk to me."
+
+"Delighted," he agreed, taking the chair opposite to her. "I suppose
+you want to know what became of poor Graham?"
+
+A sudden bewilderment appeared in her face. She leaned towards him. Her
+forehead was knitted, her eyes puzzled. There was a new problem to be
+solved.
+
+"Why, Mr. Lutchester," she demanded, "how on earth did you get here?"
+
+"Across the Atlantic," he replied amiably. "Bit too far the other way
+round."
+
+"Yes, but what on?" she persisted. "I went straight on to the _Lapland_
+after we parted last week, and only arrived here an hour or so ago.
+There was no other passenger steamer sailing for three days."
+
+"I was a stowaway," he told her confidentially--"helped to shovel coals
+all the way over."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense!" she protested a little sharply. "I dislike
+mysteries. Look at you! A stowaway, indeed! Tell me the truth
+at once?"
+
+He leaned forward in his chair towards her. An ingenuous smile parted
+his lips. He had the air of a schoolboy repeating a mischievous secret.
+
+"The fact is, Miss Van Teyl," he confided, "I don't want it talked
+about, you know, but I had a joy ride over."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"A joy ride," he repeated. "A cousin of mine is in command of a
+destroyer, and she was under orders to sail for New York. He hadn't the
+slightest right, really, to bring a passenger, as she was coming over
+on a special mission, but I had word about the trip over here, so I
+slipped on board late one night--not a word to any one, you
+understand--and--well, here I am. A more awful voyage," he went on
+impressively, "you couldn't imagine. I was sore all over within
+twenty-four hours of starting. There's practically no deck on those
+things, you know, for sitting out or anything of that sort. The British
+Navy's nowhere for comfort, I can tell you. The biggest liner for me,
+going back!"
+
+Pamela was still a little dazed. Lutchester's story did not sound in
+the least convincing. For the moment, however, she accepted his account
+of himself.
+
+"Tell me now," she begged, "about Captain Graham?"
+
+"You haven't heard, then?"
+
+"I have heard nothing. How should I hear?"
+
+"I took him straight back to my rooms after we left you," Lutchester
+began. "He was in an awful state of nerves and drugs and drink. Then I
+put him to bed as soon as I could, and rang up a pal of mine at the War
+Office to take him in hand."
+
+"Do you believe," she asked curiously, "that he had really been robbed
+of his formula?"
+
+"Those amiable people who were interviewing him in the chapel seemed to
+think so," Lutchester observed.
+
+"But you! What do you think?" she persisted. He smiled in superior
+fashion.
+
+"I find it rather hard to bring myself to believe that any one would
+take the trouble," he confided. "I have heard it said in my department
+that there have been thirty-one new explosives invented since the
+beginning of the war. Two of them only are in use, and they're not much
+better than the old stuff."
+
+Pamela nodded understandingly.
+
+"All the same," she remarked, "I am not at all sure that was the case
+with Captain Graham's invention. There were rumours for days before
+that something wonderful was happening on Salisbury Plain. They had to
+cover up whole acres of ground after his last experiments, and a man
+who was down there told me that it seemed just as though the life had
+been sucked out of it."
+
+"Where did you collect all this information?" her visitor inquired.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"One hears everything in London."
+
+Lutchester was sitting with his finger-tips pressed together. For a
+moment his attention seemed fixed upon them.
+
+"There are things," he said, "which one hears, too, in the far corners
+of the world--on the Atlantic, for instance."
+
+"You have had some news?" she interrupted.
+
+"It is really a private piece of information," he told her, "and it
+won't be in the papers--not the way the thing happened, anyway--but I
+don't suppose there's any harm in telling you, as we were both more or
+less mixed up in the affair. Graham was shot the next day, on his way
+up to Northumberland."
+
+"Shot?" she exclaimed incredulously.
+
+"Murdered, if you'd like the whole thrill," Lutchester continued. "Of
+course, we didn't get many particulars in the wireless, but we gathered
+that he was shot by some one passing him in a more powerful car on a
+lonely stretch of the Great North Road."
+
+Pamela shuddered. She was for the moment profoundly impressed. A
+certain air of unreality which had hung over the events of that night
+was suddenly banished. The whole tragedy rose up before her eyes. The
+effect of it was almost stupefying.
+
+"Gave me quite a shock," Lutchester confided. "Somehow or other I had
+never been able to take that night quite seriously. There was more than
+a dash of melodrama in it, wasn't there? Seems now as though those
+fellows must have been in earnest, though."
+
+"And as though Captain Graham's formula," she reminded him gravely,
+"was the real thing."
+
+"Whereupon," Lutchester observed, "our first interest in the affair
+receives a certain stimulus. Some one stole the formula. To judge from
+the behaviour of those amiable gentlemen connected with Henry's
+Restaurant, it wasn't they. Some one had been before them. Have you any
+theories, Miss Van Teyl?"
+
+"I can tell you who has," she replied. "Do you remember when we were
+all grouped around that notice--Mefiez-vous! Taisez-vous! Les oreilles
+ennemies vous ecoutent!?"
+
+"Of course I do," he assented.
+
+"Do you remember Baron Sunyea making a remark afterwards? He had been
+standing by and heard everything Graham said."
+
+"Can't say that I do," Lutchester regretted, "but I remember seeing him
+about the place."
+
+"You promise to say or do nothing without my permission, if I tell you
+something?" she went on.
+
+"Naturally!"
+
+"See, then, how diplomacy or secret service work, or whatever you like
+to call it, can gather the ends of the world together! Only a quarter
+of an hour ago that Japanese valet of my brother's, having searched my
+rooms in vain, demanded from me that formula!"
+
+"From you?" Lutchester gasped. "But you haven't got it!"
+
+"Of course not. On the other hand Sunyea pitched upon me as being one
+of the possible thieves, and cabled his instructions over."
+
+"Have you got it?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"If I had," she smiled, "I should not tell you."
+
+"But come," he expostulated, "the thing's no use to you."
+
+"So Baron Sunyea evidently thought," she laughed. "We'll leave that, if
+you don't mind."
+
+Lutchester was still looking a little bewildered.
+
+"I had an idea when I came in," he muttered, "that things were a little
+scrappy between you and the Japanese gentleman."
+
+She was suddenly serious.
+
+"Now that I have told you the truth," she said, "I really ought to
+thank you. You certainly seem to have a knack of appearing when you are
+wanted."
+
+"Fluke this time, I'm afraid," he acknowledged, "but I rather like the
+suggestion. You ought to see a great deal of me, Miss Van Teyl. Do you
+realise that I am a stranger in New York, and any hospitality you can
+show me may be doubly rewarded? Are you going to take me round and show
+me the sights?"
+
+"Are you going to have any time for sight-seeing?"
+
+"Well, I hope so. Why not? A fellow can't do more than a certain number
+of hours' work in a day."
+
+She looked at him curiously.
+
+"And yet," she murmured, "you expect to win the war!"
+
+"Of course we shall win the war," he assured her confidently. "You
+haven't any doubt about that yourself, have you, Miss Van Teyl?"
+
+"I don't know," she told him calmly.
+
+Lutchester was almost horrified. He rose to his feet and stood looking
+down at his companion.
+
+"Tell me what on earth you mean?" he demanded. "We always win in the
+long run, even if we muddle things about a little."
+
+"I was just contrasting in my mind," she said thoughtfully, "some of
+the Germans whom I have met since the war, with some of the Englishmen.
+They are taking it very seriously, you know, Mr. Lutchester. They don't
+find time for luncheon parties or sight-seeing."
+
+"That's just their way," he protested. "They turn themselves into
+machines. They are what we used to call suckers at school, but you can
+take my word for it that before next autumn they will be on the run."
+
+"You call them suckers," she observed. "That's because they're always
+working, always studying, always experimenting. Supposing they got hold
+of something like this new explosive?"
+
+"First of all," he told her, "I don't believe in it, and secondly, if
+it exists, the formula isn't in their hands."
+
+"Supposing it is in mine?" she suggested. "I might sell it to them."
+
+"I'd trust you all the time," he laughed lightheartedly. "I can't see
+you giving a leg up to the Huns.... Will you lunch with me at one
+o'clock to-morrow, please?"
+
+"Certainly not," she replied. "You must attend to your work, whatever
+it is."
+
+"That's all very well," he grumbled, "but every one has an hour off for
+luncheon."
+
+"People who win wars don't lunch," she declared severely. "Here's
+Jimmy--I can hear his voice--and he's brought some one up with him.
+I'll--let you know about lunch."
+
+The door opened. James Van Teyl and Fischer entered together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The first few seconds after the entrance of the two men were
+monopolised by the greetings of Pamela with her brother. Fischer stood
+a little in the background, his eyes fixed upon Lutchester. His brain
+was used to emergencies, but he found himself here confronted by an
+unanswerable problem.
+
+"Say, this is Mr. Lutchester, isn't it?" he inquired, holding out his
+hand.
+
+"The same," Lutchester assented politely. "We met at Henry's some ten
+days ago, didn't we?"
+
+"Mr. Lutchester has brought us a letter from Dicky Green, Jimmy,"
+Pamela explained, as she withdrew from her brother's arms. "Quite
+unnecessary, as it happens, because I met him in London just before we
+sailed."
+
+"Very glad to meet you, Mr. Lutchester," Jimmy declared, wringing his
+hand with American cordiality. "Dicky's an old pal of mine--one of the
+best. We graduated in the same year from Harvard."
+
+Conversation for a few minutes was platitudinous. Van Teyl, although he
+showed few signs of his recent excesses, was noisy and boisterous,
+clutching at this brief escape from a situation which he dreaded.
+Fischer on the other hand, remained in the back-ground, ominously
+silent, thinking rapidly, speculating and theorising as to the
+coincidence, if it were coincidence, of finding Lutchester and Pamela
+together. He listened to the former's polite conversation, never once
+letting his eyes wander from his face. All his thoughts were
+concentrated upon one problem. The mysterious escape of Sandy Graham,
+which had sent him flying from the country, remained unsolved. Of
+Pamela's share in it he had already his suspicions. Was it possible
+that Lutchester was the other and the central figure in that remarkable
+rescue? He waited his opportunity, and, during a momentary lull in the
+cheerful conversation, broke in with his first question.
+
+"Say, Mr. Lutchester, you haven't any twin brother, have you?"
+
+"No brother at all," Lutchester admitted.
+
+"Then, how did you get over here? You were at Henry's weren't you, on
+the night the _Lapland_ sailed? You didn't cross with us, and there's
+no other steamer due for two days."
+
+"Then I can't be here," Lutchester declared. "The thing's impossible."
+
+"Guess you'll have to explain, if you want to save me from a sleepless
+night," Fischer persisted.
+
+Lutchester smiled. He had the air of one enjoying the situation
+immensely.
+
+"Well," he said, "I have had to confess to Miss Van Teyl here, so I
+may as well make a clean breast of it to you. To every one else I meet
+in New York, I shall say that I came over on the _Lapland_. I really
+came over on a destroyer."
+
+Fischer's face seemed to become more set and grim than ever.
+
+"A British destroyer," he muttered to himself.
+
+"It was kind of a joy ride," Lutchester explained confidentially, "a
+cousin of mine who was in command came in to see me and say good-by,
+just after I'd received my orders from the head of my department to
+come out here on the next steamer, and he smuggled me on board that
+night. Mum's the word, though, if you please. We asked nobody's leave.
+It would have taken about a month to have heard anything definite from
+the Admiralty."
+
+"A British destroyer come across the Atlantic, eh?" Mr. Fischer
+muttered. "She must have come out on a special mission, then, I
+imagine."
+
+"That is not for me to say," Lutchester observed, with stiff reticence.
+
+Pamela suddenly and purposely intervened. She turned towards Fischer.
+
+"Mr. Lutchester brought some rather curious news," she observed. "He
+got it by wireless. Do you remember all the fuss there was about the
+disappearance of Captain Holderness' friend at Henry's?"
+
+"I heard something about it," he admitted grimly.
+
+"Well, Captain Graham was in my party, so naturally I was more
+interested than any one else. To all appearance he entered Henry's
+Restaurant, walked up the stairs, and disappeared into the skies. The
+place was ransacked everywhere for him, but he never turned up. Well,
+the very next day he was murdered in a motor-car on his way to
+Northumberland."
+
+"Incredible!" Fischer murmured.
+
+"Seems a queer set out," Lutchester remarked, "but it's quite true. He
+was supposed to have discovered a marvellous new explosive, the formula
+for which had been stolen. He was on his way up to Northumberland to
+make fresh experiments."
+
+"For myself I have little faith," Fischer observed, "in any new
+explosives. In Germany they believe, I understand, that the limit of
+destructiveness has been attained."
+
+"The Germans should know," Lutchester admitted carelessly. "I'm afraid
+they are still a good deal ahead of us in most scientific matters. I
+will take the liberty, of calling some time to-morrow, Miss Van Teyl,
+and hope I shall have the pleasure of improving my acquaintance with
+your brother. Good night, Mr. Fischer."
+
+"Are you staying in the hotel?" the latter inquired.
+
+"On the fifteenth floor," was the somewhat gloomy reply. "I shan't be
+able to shave in front of the window without feeling giddy. However, I
+suppose that's America. Good-by, everybody."
+
+With a little inclusive and farewell bow he disappeared. They heard him
+make his way down the corridor and ring for the lift. Rather a curious
+silence ensued, which was broken at last by Pamela.
+
+"Is that," she asked, throwing herself into an easy-chair and selecting
+a cigarette, "just an ordinary type of a nice, well-bred,
+unintelligent, self-sufficient Englishman, or--"
+
+"Or what?" Fischer asked, with interest.
+
+Pamela watched the smoke curl from the end of her cigarette.
+
+"Well, I scarcely know how to finish," she confessed, "only sometimes
+when I am talking to him I feel that he can scarcely be as big a fool
+as he seems, and then I wonder. Jimmy," she went on, shaking her head
+at him, "you're not looking well. You've been sitting up too late and
+getting into bad habits during my absence. Open confession, now, if you
+please. If it's a girl, I shall give you my blessing."
+
+Van Teyl groaned and said nothing. A foreboding of impending trouble
+depressed Pamela. She turned towards Fischer and found in his grim face
+confirmation of her fears.
+
+"What does this mean?" she demanded.
+
+"Your brother will explain," Fischer replied. "It is better that he
+should tell you everything."
+
+"Everything?" she repeated. "What is there to tell. What have you to do
+with my brother, anyway?" she added fiercely.
+
+"You must not look at me as though I were in any way to blame for what
+has happened," was the insistent reply. "On the contrary, I have been
+very lenient with your brother. I am still prepared to be lenient--upon
+certain conditions."
+
+The light of battle was in Pamela's eyes. She fought against the
+significance of the man's ominous words. This was his first blow, then,
+and directed against her.
+
+"I begin to understand," she said. "Please go on. Let me hear
+everything."
+
+Van Teyl had turned to the sideboard. He mixed and drank off a whisky
+and soda. Then he swung around.
+
+"I'll make a clean breast of it in a few words, Pamela," he promised.
+"I've gambled with Fischer's money, lost it, forged a transfer of his
+certificates to meet my liabilities, and I am in his power. He could
+have me hammered and chucked into Sing Sing, if he wanted to. That's
+all there is about it."
+
+Pamela stood the shock well. She turned to Fischer.
+
+"How much of this are you responsible for?" she asked.
+
+"That," he objected, "is an impotent question. It is not I who had the
+moulding of your brother's character. It is not I who made him a forger
+and a weakling."
+
+Van Teyl's arm was upraised. An oath broke from his lips. Pamela seized
+him firmly and drew him away.
+
+"Be quiet, James," she begged. "Let us hear what Mr. Fischer is going
+to do about it."
+
+"That depends upon you," was the cold reply.
+
+Pamela stood at the head of the table, between the two men, and
+laughed. Her brother had sunk into a chair, and his head had dropped
+moodily upon his folded arms. She looked from one to the other and a
+new sense of strength inspired her. She felt that if she were not
+indeed entirely mistress of the situation, yet the elements of triumph
+were there to her hand.
+
+"This is living, at any rate," she declared. "First of all I discover
+that your Japanese servant is a spy--"
+
+"Nikasti!" Van Teyl interrupted furiously. "Blast him! I knew that
+there was something wrong about that fellow, Fischer."
+
+Fischer frowned.
+
+"What's he been up to?" he inquired.
+
+"Well, to begin with," Pamela explained, "he searched my room, then he
+locked me in here, and was proceeding to threaten me when fortunately
+Mr. Lutchester arrived."
+
+"Threaten you--what about?" Fischer demanded.
+
+"He seemed to have an absurd idea," Pamela explained sweetly, "that I
+might have somewhere concealed upon my person the formula which was
+stolen from Captain Graham last Monday week at Henry's Restaurant. It
+makes quite a small world of it, doesn't it?"
+
+"I will deal with Nikasti for this," Fischer promised, "if it is true.
+Meanwhile?"
+
+"No sooner have I got over that little shock," Pamela went on, "than
+you turn up with this melodramatic story, and an offer from Mr.
+Fischer, which I can read in his face. Really, I feel that I shall hear
+the buzz of a cinema machine in a moment. How much do you owe him,
+Jimmy?"
+
+"Eighty-nine thousand dollars," the young man groaned.
+
+"I'll write you a cheque to-morrow morning," Pamela promised. "Will
+that do, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"It is the last thing I desire," was the calm reply.
+
+"Really! Well, perhaps now you will come to the point. Perhaps you will
+tell me what it is that you do want?"
+
+"Stolen property," Fischer announced deliberately--"stolen property,
+however, to which I have a greater right than you."
+
+She laughed at him mockingly.
+
+"I think not, Mr. Fischer," she said. "You really don't deserve it, you
+know."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Just see how you have bungled! You bait the trap, the poor man walks
+into it, and you allow another to forestall you. Not only that, but you
+actually allow Japan to come into the game, and but for Mr.
+Lutchester's appearance we might both of us have been left planté là.
+No, Mr. Fischer! You don't deserve the formula, and you shall not have
+it. I'll pay my brother's debt to you in dollars--no other way."
+
+"Dollars," Mr. Fischer told her sternly, "will never buy the forged
+transfer. Dollars will never keep your brother out of the city police
+court or Sing Sing afterwards. There isn't much future for a young man
+who has been through it."
+
+Van Teyl was upon him suddenly with a low, murderous cry. Fischer had
+no time to resist, no chance of success if he had attempted it. He was
+borne backwards on to the lounge, his assailant's hand upon his throat.
+The young man was beside himself with drink and fury. The words poured
+from his lips, incoherent, hot with rage.
+
+"You--hound! You've made my life a hell! You've plotted and schemed to
+get me into your power!... There! Do you feel the life going out of
+you?... My sister, indeed! You!... You scum of the earth! You ..."
+
+"James!"
+
+The sound of Pamela's voice unnerved him. His fit of passion was spent.
+She dragged him easily away.
+
+"Don't be a fool, Jimmy!" she begged. "You can't settle accounts like
+that."
+
+"Can't I?" he muttered. "If we'd been alone, Pamela ... my God, if he
+and I had been alone here!"
+
+"Jimmy," she said, "you're a fool, and you've been drinking. Fetch the
+water bottle."
+
+He obeyed, and she dashed water in Fischer's face. Presently he opened
+his eyes, groaned and sat up. There were two livid marks upon his
+throat. Van Teyl watched him like a crouching animal. His eyes were
+still lit with sullen fire. The lust for killing was upon him. Fischer
+sat up and blinked. He felt the atmosphere of the room, and he knew his
+danger. His hand stole into his hip pocket, and a small revolver
+suddenly flashed upon his knees. He drew a long breath of relief. He
+was like a fugitive who had found sanctuary.
+
+"So that's the game, James Van Teyl, is it?" he exclaimed. "Now
+listen."
+
+He adjusted the revolver with a click. His cruel, long fingers were
+pressed around its stock.
+
+"I am not threatening you," he went on. "I am not fond of violence, and
+I don't believe in it. This is just in case you come a single yard
+nearer to me. Now, Miss Van Teyl, my business is with you. We won't
+fence any longer. You will hand over to me the pocketbook which you
+stole from Captain Graham in Henry's Restaurant. Hand it over to me
+intact, you understand. In return I will give you the forged transfer
+of stock, and leave it to your sense of honour as to whether you care
+to pay your brother's debt or not. If you decline to consider my
+proposition, I shall ring up Joseph Neville, your brother's senior
+partner. I shall not even wait for to-morrow, mind. I shall make an
+appointment, and I shall place in his hands the proof of your brother's
+robbery."
+
+"Perhaps," Pamela murmured, "I was wrong to stop you. Jimmy....
+Anything else, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Just this. I would rather have carried this matter through in a
+friendly fashion, for reasons at which I think you can guess."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You flatter my intelligence!" she told him scornfully.
+
+"I will explain, then. I desire to offer myself as your suitor."
+
+She laughed at him without restraint or consideration.
+
+"I would rather marry my brother's valet!" she declared.
+
+"You are entirely wrong," he protested. "You are wrong, too, in holding
+up cards against me. We are on the same side. You are an American, and
+so am I. I swear that I desire nothing that is not for your good. You
+have wonderful gifts, and I have great wealth and opportunities. I have
+also a sincere and very heartfelt admiration for you."
+
+"I have never been more flattered!" Pamela scoffed.
+
+He looked a little wistfully from one to the other. Antagonism and
+dislike were written in their faces. Even Pamela, who was skilled in
+the art of subterfuge, made little effort to conceal her aversion.
+Nevertheless, he continued doggedly.
+
+"What does it matter," he demanded, "who handles this formula--you or
+I? Our faces are turned in the same direction. There is this difference
+only with me. I want to make it the basis of a kindlier feeling in
+Washington towards my father's country."
+
+Pamela's eyebrows were raised.
+
+"Are you sure," she asked, "that the formula itself would not find its
+way into your father's country?"
+
+"As to that I pledge my word," he replied. "I am an American citizen."
+
+"Looks like it, doesn't he!" Van Teyl jeered.
+
+"Tell us what you have been doing in Berlin, then?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"I had a definite mission there," Fischer assured them, "which I hope
+to bring to a definite conclusion. If you are an American citizen in
+the broadest sense of the word, England is no more to you than Germany.
+I want to place before some responsible person in the American
+Government, a proposal--an official proposal--the acceptance of which
+will be in years to come of immense benefit to her."
+
+"And the quid pro quo?" Pamela asked gently.
+
+"I am not here for the purpose of gratifying curiosity," Fischer
+replied, "but if you will take this matter up seriously, you shall be
+the person through whom this proposal shall be brought before the
+American Government. The whole of the negotiations shall be conducted
+through you. If you succeed, you will be known throughout history as
+the woman who saved America from her great and growing danger. If you
+fail, you will be no worse off than you are now."
+
+"And you propose to hand over the conduct of these negotiations to me,"
+Pamela observed, "in return for what?"
+
+"The pocketbook which you took from Captain Graham."
+
+"So there we are, back again at the commencement of our discussion,"
+Pamela remarked. "Are you going to repeat that you want this formula
+for Washington and not for Berlin?"
+
+"My first idea," Fischer confessed, "was to hand it over to Germany. I
+have changed my views. Germany has great explosives of her own. This
+formula shall be used in a different fashion. It shall be a lever in
+the coming negotiations between America and Germany."
+
+"We have had a great deal of conversation to no practical purpose,"
+Pamela declared. "Why are you so sure that I have the formula?"
+
+Fischer frowned slightly. He had recovered himself now, and his tone
+was as steady and quiet as ever. Only occasionally his eyes wandered to
+where James Van Teyl was fidgetting about the table, and at such times
+his fingers tightened upon the stock of his revolver.
+
+"It is practically certain that you have the papers," he pointed out.
+"You were the first person to go up the stairs after Graham had been
+rendered unconscious. Joseph admits that he had been forced to leave
+him--the orchestra was waiting to play. He was alone in that little
+room. That you should have known of its existence and his presence
+there is surprising, but nothing more. Furthermore, I am convinced that
+you were in some way concerned with his rescue later. You visited
+Hassan and you visited Joseph. From the latter you procured the key of
+the chapel. If only he had had the courage to tell the truth--well, we
+will let that pass. You have the papers, Miss Van Teyl. I am bidding a
+great price for them. If you are a wise woman, you will not hesitate."
+
+There was a knock at the door. They all three turned towards it a
+little impatiently. Even Pamela and her brother felt the grip of an
+absorbing problem. To their surprise, it was Lutchester who reappeared
+upon the threshold. In his hand he held a small sealed packet.
+
+"So sorry to disturb you all," he apologised. "I have something here
+which I believe belongs to you, Miss Van Teyl. I thought I'd better
+bring it up and explain. From the way your little Japanese friend was
+holding on to it, I thought it might be important. It is a little torn,
+but that isn't my fault."
+
+He held it out to Pamela. It was a long packet torn open at one end.
+From it was protruding a worn, brown pocketbook. Pamela's hand closed
+upon it mechanically. There was a dazed look in her eyes. Fischer's
+fingers stole once more towards the pocket into which, at Lutchester's
+entrance, he had slipped his revolver.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Lutchester, to all appearance, remained sublimely unconscious of the
+tension which his words and appearance seemed to have created. He had
+strolled a little further into the room, and was looking down at the
+packet which he still held.
+
+"You are wondering how I got hold of this, of course?" he observed.
+"Just one of those simple little coincidences which either mean a great
+deal or nothing at all."
+
+"How did you know it was mine?" Pamela asked, almost under her breath.
+
+"I'll explain," Lutchester continued. "I was in the lobby of the hotel,
+a few minutes ago, when I heard the fire bell outside. I hurried out
+and watched the engines go by from the sidewalk. I have always been
+rather interested in--"
+
+"Never mind that, please. Go on," Pamela asked, almost under her
+breath.
+
+"Certainly," Lutchester assented. "On the way back, then, I saw a
+little Japanese, who was coming out of the hotel, knocked down by a
+taxicab which skidded nearly into the door. I don't think he was badly
+hurt--I'm not even sure that he was hurt at all. I picked up this
+packet from the spot where he had been lying, and I was on the point of
+taking it to the office when I saw your name upon it, Miss Van Teyl, in
+what seemed to me to be your own handwriting, so I thought I'd bring it
+up."
+
+He laid it upon the table. Pamela's eyes seemed fastened upon it. She
+turned it over nervously.
+
+"It is very kind of you, Mr. Lutchester," she murmured.
+
+"I'll be perfectly frank," he went on. "I should have found out where
+the little man who dropped it had disappeared to, and restored it to
+him, but I fancied--of course, I may have been wrong--that you and he
+were having some sort of a disagreement, a few minutes ago, when I
+happened to come in. Anyway, that was in my mind, and I thought I'd run
+no risks."
+
+"You did the very kindest and most considerate thing," Pamela declared.
+
+"The little Japanese must have been our new valet," James Van Teyl
+observed. "I'm beginning to think that he is not going to be much of an
+acquisition."
+
+"You'll probably see something of him in a few minutes," Lutchester
+remarked. "I will wish you good night, Miss Van Teyl. Good night!"
+
+Pamela's reiterated thanks were murmured and perfunctory. Even James
+Van Teyl's hospitable instincts seemed numbed. They allowed Lutchester
+to depart with scarcely a word. With the closing of the door, speech
+brought them some relief from a state of tension which was becoming
+intolerable. Even then Fischer at first said nothing. He had risen
+noiselessly to his feet, his right hand was in the sidepocket of his
+coat, his eyes were fixed upon the table.
+
+"So this is why you insisted upon a valet!" James Van Teyl exclaimed,
+his voice thick with anger. "He's planted here to rob for you! Is that
+it, eh, Fischer?"
+
+Pamela drew the packet towards her and stood with her right palm
+covering it. Fischer seemed still at a loss for words.
+
+"I can assure you," he said at last fervently, "that if that packet was
+stolen from Miss Van Teyl by Nikasti, it was done without my
+instigation. It is as much a surprise to me as to any of you. We can
+congratulate ourselves that it is not on the way to Japan."
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"He is speaking the truth," she asserted. "Nikasti is not out to steal
+for others. He is playing the same game as all of us, only he is
+playing it for his own hand. Mr. Fischer has brought him here for some
+purpose of his own, without a doubt, but I am quite sure that Nikasti
+never meant to be any one's cat's-paw."
+
+"Believe me, that is the truth," Fischer agreed. "I will admit that I
+brought Nikasti here with a purpose, but upon my honour I swear that
+until this evening I never dreamed that he even knew of the existence
+of the formula."
+
+"Oh! we are not the only people in the world who are clever," Pamela
+declared, with an unnatural little laugh. "The first man who took note
+of Sandy Graham's silly words as he rushed into Henry's was Baron
+Sunyea. I saw him stiffen as he listened. He even uttered a word of
+remonstrance. Japan in London heard. Japan in your sitting-room here,
+in ten days' time, knew everything there was to be known."
+
+"I didn't bring Nikasti here for this," Fischer insisted.
+
+"Perhaps not," Pamela conceded, "but if you're a good American, what
+are you doing at all with a Japanese secret agent?"
+
+"If you trust me, you shall know," Fischer promised. "Listen to reason.
+Let us have finished with one affair at a time. You very nearly lost
+that formula to Japan. Hand over the pocketbook. You see how dangerous
+it is for it to remain in your possession. I'll keep my share of the
+bargain. I'll put my scheme before you. Come, be reasonable. See,
+here's the forged transfer."
+
+He drew a paper from his pocket and spread it out upon the table. His
+long, hairy fingers were shaking with nervousness.
+
+"Come, make it a deal," he persisted, "You can pay me the defalcations
+or not, as you choose. There is your brother's freedom and the honour
+of your name, in exchange for that pocketbook."
+
+Pamela, after all her hesitation, seemed to make up her mind with
+startling suddenness. She thrust the pocketbook towards Fischer, took
+the transfer from his fingers and tore it into small pieces.
+
+"I give in," she said. "This time you have scored. We will talk about
+the other matter tomorrow."
+
+Fischer buttoned up the packet carefully in his breast pocket. His eyes
+glittered. He turned towards the door. On the threshold he looked
+around. He stretched out his hand towards Pamela.
+
+"Believe me, you have done well," he assured her hoarsely. "I shall
+keep my word. I will set you in the path of great things."
+
+He left the room, and they heard the furious ringing of the lift bell.
+Pamela was tearing into smaller pieces the forged transfer. Van Teyl, a
+little pale, but with new life in his frame, was watching the fragments
+upon the floor. There was a tap at the door. Nikasti entered. Pamela's
+fingers paused in their task. Van Teyl stared at him. The newcomer was
+carrying the evening papers, which he laid down upon the table.
+
+"Is there anything more I can do before I go to bed, sir?" he asked,
+with his usual reverential little bow.
+
+"Aren't you hurt?" Van Teyl exclaimed.
+
+"Hurt?" Nikasti replied wonderingly. "Oh, no!"
+
+"Weren't you knocked down by a taxicab," Pamela asked, "outside the
+hotel?"
+
+Nikasti looked from one to the other with an air of gentle surprise.
+
+"I have been to my rooms in the servants' quarters," he told them, "on
+the upper floor. I have not been downstairs at all. I have been
+unpacking and arranging my own humble belongings."
+
+Van Teyl clasped his forehead.
+
+"Let me get this!" he exclaimed. "You haven't been down in the lobby of
+the hotel, you haven't been knocked down by a taxicab that skidded, you
+haven't lost a pocketbook which you had previously stolen from my
+sister?"
+
+Nikasti shook his head. He seemed completely mystified. He watched
+Pamela's face carefully.
+
+"Perhaps there has been some mistake," he suggested quietly. "My
+English is sometimes not very good. I would not dream of trying to rob
+the young lady. I have not lost any pocketbook. I have not descended
+lower down in the hotel than this floor."
+
+Van Teyl waved him away, accepted his farewell salutation, and waited
+until the door was closed.
+
+"Look here, Pamela," he protested, turning almost appealingly towards
+her, "my brain wasn't made for this sort of thing. What in thunder does
+it all mean?"
+
+Pamela looked at the fragments of paper upon the floor and sank back in
+an easy chair.
+
+"Jimmy," she confided, "I don't know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Pamela opened her eyes the next morning upon a distinctly pleasing
+sight. At the foot of her bed was an enormous basket of pink
+carnations. On the counterpane by her side lay a smaller cluster of
+twelve very beautiful dark red Gloire de Dijon roses. Attached to these
+latter was a note.
+
+"When did these flowers come, Leah?" Pamela asked the maid who was
+moving about the room.
+
+"An hour ago, madam," the girl told her.
+
+"Read the name on the card," Pamela directed, pointing to the mass of
+pink blossoms.
+
+"Mr. Oscar H. Fischer," the girl read out, "with respectful
+compliments."
+
+Pamela smiled.
+
+"He doesn't know, then," she murmured to herself. "Get my bath ready,
+Leah."
+
+The maid disappeared into the inner room. Pamela tore open the note
+attached to the roses by her side, and read it slowly through:
+
+Dear Miss Van Teyl,
+
+I am so very sorry, but the luncheon we had half-planned for to-day
+must be postponed. I have an urgent message to go south; to
+inspect--but no secrets! It's horribly disappointing. I hope we may
+meet in a few days.
+
+Sincerely yours,
+
+JOHN LUTCHESTER.
+
+Pamela laid down the note, conscious of an indefined but distinct
+sensation of disappointment. After all, it was not so wonderful to wake
+up and find oneself in New York. The sun was pleasant, the little puffs
+of air which came in through the window across the park, delightful and
+exhilarating, yet something had gone out of the day. Accustomed to
+self-analysis, she asked herself swiftly--what? It was, without a
+doubt, something to do with Lutchester's departure. She tried to face
+the question of her disappointment. Was it possible to feel any real
+interest in a man who preferred a Government post to the army at such a
+time, and who had brought his golf clubs out to America? Her
+imagination for a moment revolved around the problem of his apparently
+uninteresting and yet, in some respects, contradictory personality. Was
+it really her fancy or had she, every now and then, detected behind
+that flamboyant manner traces of something deeper and more serious,
+something which seemed to indicate a life and aims of which nothing
+appeared upon the surface? She clasped her knees and sat up in bed,
+listening to the sound of the running water in the next room. Was there
+any possible explanation of his opportune appearance on the night
+before with a dummy pocketbook and a concocted story? The cleverest man
+on earth could surely never have gauged her position with Fischer and
+intervened in such a manner at the psychological moment.
+
+Yet he had done it, she reflected, gazing thoughtfully at Fischer's
+gift. If, indeed, he knew what was passing around him to that extent,
+how much more knowledge might he not possess? She felt the little
+silken belt around her waist. At least there was no one who could take
+Sandy Graham's secret from her until she chose to give it up. Supposing
+for a moment that Lutchester was also out for the great things, was he
+fooled by her attitude? If he knew so much, he must know that the
+secret remained with her. Perhaps, after all, he was only a philanderer
+in intrigue....
+
+Pamela bathed and dressed, sent for her brother, and, to his horror,
+insisted upon an American breakfast.
+
+"It's quite time I came back to look after you, Jimmy," she said
+severely, as she watched him send away his grapefruit and gaze
+helplessly at his bacon and eggs. "You're going to turn over a new
+leaf, young man."
+
+"I shan't be sorry," he confessed fervently. "I tell you, Pamela, when
+you have a thing like this hanging over you, it's hell--some hell! You
+just want to drown your thoughts and keep going all the time."
+
+She nodded sagely.
+
+"Well, that's over now, Jimmy," she said, "and I meant you to listen to
+me. It's more than likely that Mr. Fischer may find out at any moment
+that the mysterious pocketbook, which came from heaven knows where, is
+a faked one. He may be horrid about it."
+
+"While we are on that," Van Teyl interrupted, "I couldn't sleep a wink
+last night for trying to imagine where on earth that fellow Lutchester
+came in, and what his game was."
+
+"I have a headache this morning, trying to puzzle out the same thing,"
+Pamela told him.
+
+"He seems such an ordinary sort of chap," Van Teyl continued
+thoughtfully. "Good sportsman, no doubt, and all that sort of thing,
+but the last fellow in the world to concoct a yarn, and if he did, what
+was his object?"
+
+"Jimmy," his sister begged, "let's quit. Of course, I know a little
+more than you do, but the little more that I do know only makes it more
+confusing. Now, to make it worse, he's gone away."
+
+"What, this morning?"
+
+"Gone away on his Government work," Pamela announced. "I had a note and
+some roses from him. Don't let's talk about it, Jimmy. I keep on
+getting new ideas, and it makes my brain whirl. I want to talk about
+you."
+
+"I'm a rotten lot to talk about," he sighed.
+
+She patted his hand.
+
+"You're nothing of the sort, dear, and you've got to remember now that
+you're out of the trouble. But listen. Hurry down to the office as
+early as you can and set about straightening things out, so that if Mr.
+Fischer tries to make trouble, he won't be able to do it. There's my
+cheque for eighty-nine thousand dollars I made out last night before I
+went to bed," she added, passing it over to him. "Just replace what
+stocks you're short of and get yourself out of the mess, and don't
+waste any time about it."
+
+His face glowed as he looked across the table.
+
+"You're the most wonderful sister, Pamela."
+
+"Nonsense!" she interrupted. "Nonsense! I ought not to have left you
+alone all this time, and, besides, I'm pretty sure he helped you into
+this trouble for his own ends. Anyway, we are all right now. I shall be
+in New York for a few days before I go to Washington. When I do go, you
+must see whether you can get leave and come with me."
+
+"That's bully," he declared. "I'll get leave, right enough. There's
+never been less doing in Wall Street. But say, Pamela, I don't seem to
+half understand what's going on. You've given up most of your friends,
+and you spend months away there in Europe in all sorts of corners. Now
+you come back and you seem mixed up in regular secret service work.
+Where do you come in, anyway? What are you going to Washington for?"
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Queer tastes, haven't I, Jimmy?"
+
+"Queer for a girl."
+
+"That's prejudice," she objected, shaking her head. "Nowadays there are
+few things a woman can't do. To tell you the truth, my new interest in
+life started three years ago, when Uncle Theodore found out that I was
+going to Rome for the winter."
+
+"So Uncle Theodore started it, did he?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"That's the worst of having an uncle in the Administration, isn't it?
+Well, of course, he gave me letters to every one in Rome, and I found
+out what he wanted quite easily, and without the inquiries going
+through the Embassy at all. Sometimes, as you can understand, that's a
+great advantage. I found it simply fascinating--the work, I mean--and
+after three or four more commissions--well, they recognised me at
+Washington. I have been to most of the capitals in Europe at different
+times, with small affairs to arrange at each, or information to get.
+Sometimes it's been just about commercial things. Since the war,
+though, of course, it's been more exciting than ever. If I were an
+Englishwoman instead of an American, I could tell them some things in
+London which they'd find pretty surprising. It's not my affair, though,
+and I keep what information I do pick up until it works in with
+something else for our own good. I knew quite well in Berlin, for
+instance, to speak of something you've heard of, that Henry's
+Restaurant in London was being used as a centre of espionage by the
+Germans. That is why I was on the lookout, the day I went there."
+
+"You mean the day that pocketbook was stolen that the whole world seems
+crazy about?" Van Teyl asked.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I believe it is perfectly true," she said, "that a young man called
+Graham has invented an entirely new explosive, the formula for which he
+brought to Henry's with him that day. It isn't only what happens when
+the shell explodes, but a sort of putrefaction sets in all round, and
+they say that everything within a mile dies. There were spies down even
+watching his experiments. There were spies following him up to London,
+there were spies in Henry's Restaurant when like a fool he gave the
+thing away. Fischer was the ringleader of this lot, and he meant having
+the formula from Graham that night. I don't want to bore you, Jimmy,
+but I got there first."
+
+"Bore me!" the young man repeated. "Why, it's like a modern Arabian
+Nights. I can't imagine you in the thick of this sort of thing,
+Pamela."
+
+"It's very easy to slip into the way of anything you like," she
+answered. "I knew exactly what they were going to do to Captain Graham,
+and I got there before them. When they searched him, the formula had
+gone. Fischer caught my steamer and worried me all the way over. He
+thought he had us in a corner last night, and then a miracle happened."
+
+"You mean that fellow Lutchester turning up?"
+
+"Yes, I mean that," Pamela admitted.
+
+"Say, didn't that Jap fellow get the pocketbook from your rooms at all,
+then?" Van Teyl asked. "I couldn't follow it all last night."
+
+"He searched my rooms," Pamela replied, "and failed to find it.
+Afterwards, when he and I were alone in your sitting-room, heaven knows
+what would have happened, but for the miraculous arrival of Mr.
+Lutchester, whom I had left behind in London, come to pay an evening
+call in the Hotel Plaza, New York!"
+
+Van Teyl shook his head slowly, got up from his seat, lit a cigarette,
+and came back again.
+
+"Pam," he confessed, "my brain won't stand it. You're not going to tell
+me that Lutchester's in the game? Why, a simpler sort of fellow I never
+spoke to."
+
+"I can't make up my own mind about Mr. Lutchester," Pamela sighed. "He
+helped me in London on the night I sailed--in fact, he was very useful
+indeed--but why he invented that story about Nikasti, brought a dummy
+pocketbook into the room and helped us out of all our troubles, unless
+it was by sheer and brilliant instinct, I cannot imagine."
+
+"Let me get on to this," Van Teyl said. "Even the pocketbook was a
+fake, then?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I shouldn't be likely to leave things I risk my life for about my
+bedroom," she told him.
+
+"Where is it, then--the real thing?" he asked.
+
+She smiled.
+
+"If you must know, Jimmy," she confided, dropping her voice, "it's in a
+little compartment of a silk belt around my waist. It will remain there
+until I get to Washington, or until Mr. Haskall comes to me."
+
+"Haskall, the Government explosives man?"
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"Even he won't get it without Government authority."
+
+"Now, tell me, Pamela," Van Teyl went on--"you're a far-seeing girl--I
+suppose we should get it in the neck from Germany some day or other, if
+the Germans won? Why don't you hand the formula over to the British,
+and give them a chance to get ahead?"
+
+"That's a sensible question, Jimmy, and I'll try to answer it," Pamela
+promised. "Because when once the shells are made and used, the secret
+will be gone. I think it very likely that it would enable England to
+win the war; but, you see, I am an American, not English, and I'm all
+American. I have been in touch with things pretty closely for some time
+now, and I see trouble ahead for us before very long. I can't exactly
+tell you where it's coming from, but I feel it. I want America to have
+something up her sleeve, that's why."
+
+"You're a great girl, Pamela," her brother declared. "I'm off downtown,
+feeling a different man. And, Pamela, I haven't said much, but God
+bless you, and as long as I live I'm going as straight as a die. I've
+had my lesson."
+
+He bent over her a little clumsily and kissed her. Pamela walked to the
+door with him.
+
+"Be a dear," she called out, "and come back early. And, Jimmy!" ...
+
+"Hullo?'"
+
+"Put things right at the office at once," she whispered with emphasis.
+"Fischer hasn't found out yet. I sent him a message this morning,
+thanking him for the carnations, and asking him to walk with me in the
+park after breakfast, I shall keep him away till lunch time, at least."
+
+The young man looked at her, and at Nikasti, who out in the corridor
+was holding his hat and cane. Then he chuckled.
+
+"And they say that things don't happen in New York!" he murmured, as he
+turned away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+An elderly New Yorker, a man of fashion, renowned for his social
+perceptions, pressed his companion's arm at the entrance to Central
+Park and pointed to Pamela.
+
+"There goes a typical New York girl," he said, "and the best-looking
+I've seen for many a long day. You can go all round Europe, Freddie,
+and not see a girl with a face and figure like that. She had that frank
+way, too, of looking you in the eyes."
+
+"I know," the other assented. "Gibson's girls all had it. Kind of look
+which seems to say--'I know you find me nice and I don't mind. I wonder
+whether you're nice, too.'"
+
+Pamela strolled along the park with Fischer by her side. She wore a
+tailor-made costume of black and white tweed, and a smart hat, in which
+yellow seemed the predominating colour. Her shoes, her gloves, the
+little tie about her throat, were all the last word in the simple
+elegance of suitability. Fischer walked by her side--a powerful,
+determined figure in a carefully-pressed blue serge suit and a brown
+Homburg hat. He wore a rose in his buttonhole, and he carried a
+cane--both unusual circumstances. After fifty years of strenuous
+living, Mr. Fischer seemed suddenly to have found a new thing in the
+world.
+
+"This is a pleasant idea of yours, Miss Van Teyl," he said.
+
+"I haven't disturbed your morning, I hope?" she asked.
+
+"I guess, if you have, it isn't the way you mean," he replied. "You've
+disturbed a good deal of my time and thoughts lately."
+
+"Well, you've had your own way now," she sighed, looking at him out of
+the corner of her eyes. "I suppose you always get your own way in the
+end, don't you, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Generally," he admitted. "I tell you, though, Miss Van Teyl," he went
+on earnestly, "if you're alluding to last night's affair, I hated the
+whole business. It was my duty, and the opportunity was there, but with
+what I have I am satisfied. With reference to that little debt of your
+brother's--"
+
+"Please don't say a word, Mr. Fischer," she interrupted. "You will find
+that all put right as soon as you get down to Wall Street. Tell me,
+what have you done with your prize?"
+
+Mr. Fischer looked very humble.
+
+"Miss Van Teyl," he said, "for certain reasons I am going to tell you
+the truth. Perhaps it will be the best in the long run. We may even
+before long be working together. So I start by being honest with you.
+The pocketbook is by now on its way to Germany."
+
+"To Germany?" she exclaimed. "And after all your promises!"
+
+"Ah, but think, Miss Van Teyl," he pleaded. "I throw aside all
+subterfuge. In your heart you know well what I am and what I stand for.
+I deny it no longer. I am a German-American, working for Germany,
+simply because America does not need my help. If America were at war
+with any country in the world, my brains, my knowledge, my wealth would
+be hers. But now it is different. Germany is surrounded by many
+enemies, and she calls for her sons all over the world to remember the
+Fatherland. You can sympathise a little with my unfortunate country,
+Miss Van Teyl, and yet remain a good American. You are not angry with
+me?"
+
+"I suppose I ought to be, but I am not in the least," she assured him.
+"I never had any doubt as to the destination of that packet."
+
+"That," he admitted, "is a relief to me. Let us wipe the matter from
+our memories, Miss Van Teyl."
+
+"One word," she begged, "and that only of curiosity. Did you examine
+the contents of the pocketbook?"
+
+He turned his head and looked at her. For a moment he had lost the
+greater spontaneity of his new self. He was again the cold, calculating
+machine.
+
+"No," he answered, "except to take out and destroy what seemed to be a
+few private memoranda. There was a bill for flowers, a note from a
+young lady--some rubbish of that sort. The remaining papers were all
+calculations and figures, chemical formulae."
+
+"Are you a chemist, Mr. Fischer?" she inquired.
+
+"Not in the least," he acknowledged. "I recognised just enough of the
+formulae on the last page to realise that there were entirely new
+elements being dealt with."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I only asked out of curiosity. I agree. Let us put it out of our
+thoughts. You see, I am generous. We have fought a battle, you and I,
+and I have lost. Yet we remain friends."
+
+"It is more than your friendship that I want, Miss Van Teyl," he
+pleaded, his voice shaking a little. "I am years older than you, I
+know, and, by your standards, I fear unattractive. But you love power,
+and I have it. I will take you into my schemes. I will show you how
+those live who stand behind the clouds and wield the thunders."
+
+She looked at him with genuine surprise. It was necessary to readjust
+some of her impressions of him. Oscar Fischer was, after all, a human
+being.
+
+"What you say is all very well so far as it goes," she told him. "I
+admit that a life of scheming and adventure attracts me. I love power.
+I can think of nothing more wonderful than to feel the machinery of the
+world--the political world--roar or die away, according to the touch of
+one's fingers. Oh, yes, we're alike so far as that is concerned! But
+there is a very vital difference. You are only an American by accident.
+I am one by descent. For me there doesn't exist any other country. For
+you Germany comes first."
+
+"But can't you realise," he went on eagerly, "that even this is for the
+best? America to-day is hypnotised by a maudlin, sentimental affection
+for England, a country from whom she never received anything but harm.
+We want to change that. We want to kill for ever the misunderstandings
+between the two greatest nations in the world. My creed of life could
+be yours, too, without a single lapse from your patriotism. Friendship,
+alliance, brotherhood, between Germany and America. That would be my
+text."
+
+"Shall I be perfectly frank?" Pamela asked.
+
+"Nothing else is worth while," was the instant answer.
+
+"Well, then," she continued, "I can quite see that Germany has
+everything to gain from America's friendship, but I cannot see the quid
+pro quo."
+
+"And yet it is so clear," Fischer insisted. "Your own cloud may not be
+very large just now, but it is growing, and, before you know it, it
+will be upon you. Can you not realise why Japan is keeping out of this
+war? She is conserving her strength. Millions flow into her coffers
+week by week. In a few years time, Japan, for the first time in her
+history, will know what it is to possess solid wealth. What does she
+want it for, do you think? She has no dreams of European aggression, or
+her soldiers would be fighting there now. China is hers for the taking,
+a rich prize ready to fall into her mouth at any moment. But the end
+and aim of all Japanese policy, the secret Mecca of her desires, is to
+repay with the sword the insults your country has heaped upon her. It
+is for that, believe me, that her arsenals are working night and day,
+her soldiers are training, her fleet is in reserve. While you haggle
+about a few volunteers, Japan is strengthening and perfecting a mighty
+army for one purpose and one purpose only. Unless you wake up, you will
+be in the position that Great Britain was in two years ago. Even now,
+work though you may, you will never wholly make up for lost time. The
+one chance for you is friendship with Germany."
+
+"Will Germany be in a position to help us after the war?" Pamela asked.
+
+"Never doubt it," Fischer replied vehemently. "Before peace is signed
+the sea power of England will be broken. Financially she will be
+ruined. She is a country without economic science, without foresight,
+without statesmen. The days of her golden opportunities have passed,
+frittered away. Unless we of our great pity bind up her wounds, England
+will bleed to death before the war is over."
+
+"That, you must remember," Pamela said practically, "is your point of
+view."
+
+"I could tell you things--" he began.
+
+"Don't," she begged. "I know what your outlook is now. Be definite.
+Leaving aside that other matter, what is your proposition to me?"
+
+Fischer walked for a while in silence. They had turned back some time
+since, and were once more nearing the Plaza.
+
+"You ask me to leave out what is most vital," he said at last. "I have
+never been married, Miss Van Teyl. I am wealthy. I am promised great
+honours at the end of this war. When that comes, I shall rest. If
+you will be my wife, you can choose your home, you can choose your
+title."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"But I am not sure that I even like you, Mr. Fischer," she objected.
+"We have fought in opposite camps, and you have had the bad taste to be
+victorious. Besides which, you were perfectly brutal to James, and I am
+not at all sure that I don't resent your bargain with me. As a matter
+of fact, I am feeling very bitter towards you."
+
+"You should not," he remonstrated earnestly. "Remember that, after all,
+women are only dabblers in diplomacy. Their very physique prevents them
+from playing the final game. You have brains, of course, but there are
+other things--experience, courage, resource. You would be a wonderful
+helpmate, Miss Van Teyl, even if your individual and unaided efforts
+have not been entirely successful."
+
+She sighed. Pamela just then was a picture of engaging humility.
+
+"It is so hard for me," she murmured, "I do not want to marry yet. I do
+not wish to think of it. And so far as you are concerned, Mr.
+Fischer--well, I am simply furious when I think of your attitude last
+night. But I love adventures."
+
+"I will promise you all the adventures that can be crammed into your
+life," he urged.
+
+"But be more definite," she persisted. "Where should we start? You are
+over here now on some important mission. Tell me more about it?"
+
+"I cannot just yet," he answered. "All that I can promise you is that,
+if I am successful, it will stop the war just as surely as Captain Graham's
+new explosive."
+
+"I thought you were going to make a confidante of me," she complained.
+
+He suddenly gripped her arm. It was the first time he had touched her,
+and she felt a queer surging of the blood to her head, a sudden and
+almost uncontrollable repulsion. The touch of his long fingers was like
+flame; his eyes, behind their sheltering spectacles, glowed in a
+curious, disconcerting fashion.
+
+"To the woman who was my pledged wife," he said, "I would tell
+everything. From the woman who gave me her hand and became my ally I
+would have no secrets. Come, I have a message, more than a message, to
+the American people. I am taking it to Washington before many hours
+have passed. If it is your will, it should be you to whom I will
+deliver it."
+
+Pamela walked on with her head in the air. Fischer was leaning a little
+towards her. Every now and then his mouth twitched slightly. His eyes
+seemed to be seeking to reach the back of her brain.
+
+"Please go now," she begged. "I can't think clearly while you are here,
+and I want to make up my mind. I will send to you when I am ready."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Pamela sat that afternoon on the balcony of the country club at
+Baltusrol and approved of her surroundings. Below her stretched a
+pleasant vista of rolling greensward, dotted here and there with the
+figures of the golfers. Beyond, the misty blue background of rising
+hills.
+
+"I can't tell you how peaceful this all seems, Jimmy," she said to her
+brother, who had brought her out in his automobile. "One doesn't notice
+the air of strain over on the Continent, because it's the same
+everywhere, but it gets a little on one's nerves, all the same. I
+positively love it here."
+
+"It's fine to have you," was the hearty response. "Gee, that fellow
+coming to the sixteenth hole can play some!"
+
+Pamela directed her attention idly towards the figure which her brother
+indicated--a man in light tweeds, who played with an easy and graceful
+swing, and with the air of one to whom the game presented no
+difficulties whatever. She watched him drive for the seventeenth--a
+long, raking ball, fully fifty yards further than his opponent's--
+watched him play a perfect mashie shot to the green and hole out in
+three.
+
+"A birdie," James Van Teyl murmured. "I say, Pamela!"
+
+She took no notice. Her eyes were still following the figure of the
+golfer. She watched him drive at the last hole, play a chip shot on to
+the green, and hit the hole for a three. The frown deepened upon her
+forehead. She was looking very uncompromising when the two men ascended
+the steps.
+
+"I didn't know, Mr. Lutchester, that there were any factories down this
+way," she remarked severely, as he paused before her in surprise.
+
+For a single moment she fancied that she saw a flash of annoyance in
+his eyes. It was gone so swiftly, however, that she remained uncertain.
+He held out his hand, laughing.
+
+"Fairly caught out, Miss Van Teyl," he confessed. "You see, I was
+tempted, and I fell."
+
+His companion, an elderly, clean-shaven man, passed on. Pamela glanced
+after him.
+
+"Who is your opponent?" she asked.
+
+"Just some one I picked up on the tee," Lutchester explained. "How is
+our friend Fischer this morning?"
+
+"I walked with him for an hour in the Park," Pamela replied. "He seemed
+quite cheerful. I have scarcely thanked you yet for returning the
+pocketbook, have I?"
+
+His face was inscrutable.
+
+"Couldn't keep a thing that didn't belong to me, could I?" he observed.
+
+"You have a marvellous gift for discovering lost property," she
+murmured.
+
+"For discovering the owners, you mean," he retorted, with a little bow.
+
+"You're some golfer, I see, Mr. Lutchester," Van Teyl interposed.
+
+"I was on my game to-day," Lutchester admitted. "With a little luck at
+the seventh," he continued earnestly, "I might have tied the amateur
+record. You see, my ball--but there, I mustn't bore you now. I must
+look after my opponent and stand him a drink. We shall meet again, I
+daresay."
+
+Lutchester passed on, and Pamela glanced up at her brother.
+
+"Is he a sphinx or a fool?" she whispered.
+
+"Don't ask me," Van Teyl replied. "Seems to me you were a bit rough on
+him, anyway. I don't see why the fellow shouldn't have a day's holiday
+before he gets to work. If I had his swing, it would interfere with my
+career, I know that, well enough."
+
+"Did you recognise the man with whom he was playing?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"Can't say that I did. His face seems familiar, too."
+
+"Go and see if you can find out his name," Pamela begged. "It isn't
+ordinary curiosity. I really want to know."
+
+"That's easy enough," Van Teyl replied, rising from his place. "And
+I'll order tea at the same time."
+
+Pamela leaned a little further back in her chair. Her eyes seemed to be
+fixed upon the pleasant prospect of wooded slopes and green,
+upward-stretching sward. As a matter of fact, she saw only two faces--
+Fischer's and Lutchester's. Her chief impulse in life for the immediate
+present seemed to have resolved itself into a fierce, almost a
+passionate curiosity. It was the riddle of those two brains which she
+was so anxious to solve. ... Fischer, the cold, subtle intriguer, with
+schemes at the back of his mind which she knew quite well that, even in
+the moment of his weakness, he intended to keep to himself; and
+Lutchester, with his almost cynical devotion to pleasure, yet with his
+unaccountable habit of suggesting a strength and qualities to which he
+neither laid nor established any claim. Of the two men it was
+Lutchester who piqued her, with whom she would have found more pleasure
+in the battle of wits. She found herself alternately furious and
+puzzled with him, yet her uneasiness concerning him possessed more
+disquieting, more fascinating possibilities than any of the emotions
+inspired by the other man.
+
+Van Teyl returned to her presently, a little impressed.
+
+"Thought I knew that chap's face," he observed. "It's Eli Hamblin--
+Senator Hamblin, you know."
+
+"A friend and confidant of the President," she murmured. "A Westerner,
+too. I wonder what he's doing here ... Jimmy!"
+
+"Hallo, Sis?"
+
+"You've just got to be a dear," Pamela begged. "Go to the caddy master,
+or professional, or some one, and find out whether Mr. Lutchester met
+him here by accident or whether they arrived together."
+
+"You'll turn me into a regular sleuthhound," he laughed. "However, here
+goes."
+
+He strolled off again, and Pamela found herself forced to become
+mundane and frivolous whilst she chatted with some newly-arrived
+acquaintances. It was not until some little time after her brother's
+return that she found herself alone with him.
+
+"Well?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"They arrived within a few minutes of one another," Van Teyl announced.
+"Senator Hamblin bought a couple of new balls and made some inquiries
+about the course, but said nothing about playing. Lutchester, who
+appears not to have known him, came up later and asked him if he'd like
+a game. That's all I could find out."
+
+Pamela pointed to a little cloud of dust in the distance.
+
+"And there they go," she observed, "together."
+
+Van Teyl threw himself into a chair and accepted the cup of tea which
+his sister handed him.
+
+"Well," he inquired, "what do you make of it?"
+
+"There's more in that question than you think, James," Pamela replied.
+"All the same, I think I shall be able to answer it in a few days."
+
+Another little crowd of acquaintances discovered them, and Pamela was
+soon surrounded by a fresh group of admirers. They all went out
+presently to inspect the new tennis courts. Pamela and her brother were
+beset with invitations.
+
+"You positively must stay down and dine with us, and go home by
+moonlight," Mrs. Saunders, a lively young matron with a large country
+house close by, insisted. "Jimmy's neglected me terribly these last few
+months, and as for you, Pamela, I haven't seen you for a year."
+
+"I'd love to if we can," Pamela assured her, "but Jimmy will have to
+telephone first."
+
+"Then do be quick about it," Mrs. Saunders begged, "It doesn't matter a
+bit about clothes. We've twenty people staying in the house now, and
+half of us won't change, if that makes you more comfortable. Jimmy, if
+you fail at that telephone I'll never forgive you."
+
+But Van Teyl, who had caught the little motion of his sister's head
+towards the city, proved equal to the occasion. He returned presently,
+driving the car.
+
+"Got to go," he announced as he made his farewells. "Can't be helped,
+Pamela. Frightfully sorry, Mrs. Saunders, we are wanted up in New
+York."
+
+Pamela sighed.
+
+"I was so afraid of it," she regretted as she waved her adieux. . . . .
+
+An hour or so later the city broke before them in murky waves. Pamela,
+who had been leaning back in the car, deep in thought, sat up.
+
+"You are a perfect dear, James," she said. "Do you think you could
+stand having Mr. Fischer to dinner one evening this week?"
+
+"Sure!" he replied, a little curiously. "If you want to keep friends
+with him for any reason, I don't bear him any ill-will."
+
+"I just want to talk to him," Pamela murmured, "that's all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+There was a ripple of interest and a good deal of curiosity that
+afternoon, in the lounge and entrance hall of the Hotel Plaza, when a
+tall, grey-moustached gentleman of military bearing descended from the
+automobile which had brought him from the station, and handed in his
+name at the desk, inquiring for Mr. Fischer.
+
+"Will you send my name up--the Baron von Schwerin," he directed.
+
+The clerk, who had recognised the newcomer, took him under his personal
+care.
+
+"Mr. Fischer is up in his rooms, expecting you, Baron," he announced.
+"If you'll come this way, I'll take you up."
+
+The Baron followed his guide to the lift and along the corridor to the
+suite of rooms occupied by Mr. Fischer and his young friend, James Van
+Teyl. Mr. Fischer himself opened the door. The two men clasped hands
+cordially, and the clerk discreetly withdrew.
+
+"Back with us once more, Fischer," Von Schwerin exclaimed fervently.
+"You are wonderful. Tell me," he added, looking around, "we are to be
+alone here?"
+
+"Absolutely," Fischer replied. "The young man I share these apartments
+with--James Van Teyl--has taken his sister out to Baltusrol. They will
+not be back until seven o'clock. We are sure of solitude."
+
+"Good!" Von Schwerin exclaimed. "And you have news--I can see it in
+your face."
+
+Fischer rolled up easy chairs and produced a box of cigars.
+
+"Yes," he assented, with a little glitter in his eyes, "I have news.
+Things have moved with me. I think that, with the help of an idiotic
+Englishman, we shall solve the riddle of what our professors have
+called the consuming explosive. I sent the formula home to Germany, by
+a trusty hand, only a few hours ago."
+
+"Capital!" Von Schwerin declared. "It was arranged in London, that?"
+
+"Partly in London and partly here," Fischer replied.
+
+Von Schwerin made a grimace.
+
+"If you can find those who are willing to help you here, you are
+fortunate indeed," he sighed. "My life's work has lain amongst these
+people. In the days of peace, all seemed favourable to us. Since the
+war, even those people whom I thought my friends seem to have lost
+their heads, to have lost their reasoning powers."
+
+"After all," Fischer muttered, "it is race calling to race. But come,
+we have more direct business on hand. Nikasti is here."
+
+Von Schwerin nodded a little gloomily.
+
+"Washington knows nothing of his coming," he observed. "I attended the
+Baron Yung's reception last week, informally. I threw out very broad
+hints, but Yung would not be drawn. Nikasti represents the Secret
+Service of Japan, unofficially and without responsibility."
+
+"Nevertheless," Fischer pointed out, "what he says will reach the ear
+of his country, and reach it quickly. You've gone through the papers I
+sent you?"
+
+"Carefully," Von Schwerin replied. "And the autograph letter?"
+
+"That I have," Fischer announced. "I will fetch Nikasti."
+
+He crossed the room and opened the door leading into the bedchambers.
+
+"Are you there, Kato?" he cried.
+
+"I am coming, sir," was the instant reply.
+
+Nikasti appeared, a few moments later. He was carrying a dress coat on
+his arm, and he held a clothes brush in his hand. It was obvious that
+he had studied with nice care the details of his new part.
+
+"You can sit down, Nikasti," Fischer invited. "This is the Baron von
+Schwerin. He has something to say to you."
+
+Nikasti bowed very low. He declined the chair, however, to which
+Fischer pointed.
+
+"I am your valet and the valet of Mr. Van Teyl," he murmured. "It is
+not fitting for me to be seated. I listen."
+
+Von Schwerin drew his chair a little nearer.
+
+"I plunge at once," he said, "into the middle of things. There is
+always the fear that we may be disturbed."
+
+Nikasti inclined his head.
+
+"It is best," he agreed.
+
+"You are aware," Von Schwerin continued, "that the Imperial Government
+of Germany has already made formal overtures, through a third party, to
+the Emperor of Japan with reference to an alteration in our relations?"
+
+"There was talk of this in Tokio," Nikasti observed softly. "Japan,
+however, is under obligations--treaty obligations. Her honour demands
+that these should be kept."
+
+"The honour of a country," Baron von Schwerin acknowledged, "is,
+without doubt, a sacred charge upon her rulers, but above all things in
+heaven or on earth, the interests of her people must be their first
+consideration. If a time should come when the two might seem to clash,
+then it is the task of the statesman to recognise this fact."
+
+Nikasti bowed.
+
+"It is spoken," he confessed, "like a great man."
+
+"Your country," Von Schwerin continued, "is at war with mine because it
+seemed to her rulers that her interests lay with the Allies rather than
+with Germany. I will admit that my country was at fault. We did not
+recognise to its full extent the value of friendship with Japan. We did
+not bid high enough for your favours. Asia concerned us very little. We
+looked upon the destruction of our interests there in the same spirit
+as that with which we contemplated the loss of our colonies. All that
+might happen would be temporary. Our influence in Asia, our colonies,
+will remain with us or perish, according to the result of the war in
+Europe. But our statesmen overlooked one thing."
+
+"Our factories," Nikasti murmured.
+
+"Precisely! We have had our agents all over the world for years. Some
+are good, a few are easily deceived. There is no country in the world
+where apparently so much liberty is granted to foreigners as in Japan.
+There is no country where the capacity for manufacture and output has
+been so grossly underestimated by our agents, as yours."
+
+Nikasti smiled.
+
+"I had something to do with that," he announced. "It was Karl Neumann,
+was it not, on whom you relied? I supplied him with much information."
+
+Von Schwerin's face clouded for a moment.
+
+"You mean that you fooled him, I suppose," he said. "Well, it is all
+part of the game. That is over now. We want your exports to Russia
+stopped."
+
+"Ah!" Nikasti murmured reflectively. "Stopped!"
+
+"We ask no favours," Von Schwerin continued. "The issue of the war is
+written across the face of the skies for those who care to read."
+
+Nikasti looked downwards at the dress coat which he was carrying. Then
+he glanced up at Von Schwerin.
+
+"Perhaps our eyes have been dazzled," he said. "Will you not
+interpret?"
+
+"The end of the war will be a peace of exhaustion," Von Schwerin
+explained. "Our loftier dreams of conquest we must abandon. Germany has
+played her part, but Austria, alas! has failed. Peace will leave us all
+very much where we were. Very well, then, I ask you, what has Japan
+gained? You answer China? I deny it. Yet even if it were true, it will
+take you five hundred years to make a great country of China. Suppose
+for a moment you had been on the other side. What about Australia?...
+New Zealand?"
+
+"Are those things under present consideration?" Nikasti queried.
+
+"Why not?" Von Schwerin replied. "Listen. Close your exports to Russia
+within the next thirty days. Build up for yourselves a stock of
+ammunition, add to your fleet, and prepare. Within a year of the
+cessation of war, there is no reason why your national dream should not
+be realised. Your fleet may sail for San Francisco. The German fleet
+shall make a simultaneous attack upon the eastern coast of
+Massachusetts and New York."
+
+"The German fleet," Nikasti repeated. "And England?"
+
+Von Schwerin's eyes flashed for a moment.
+
+"If the English fleet is still in being," he declared, "it will be a
+crippled and defeated fleet, but, for the sake of your point of view, I
+will assume that it exists. Even then there will be nothing to prevent
+the German fleet from steaming in what waters it pleases. If our shells
+fall upon New York on the day when your warships are sighted off the
+Californian coast, do you suppose that America could resist? With her
+seaboard, her fleet is contemptible. For her wealth, her army is a
+farce. She has neglected for a great many years to pay her national
+insurance. She is the one country in the world who can be bled for the
+price of empires."
+
+Fischer, who had been smoking furiously, spat out the end of a fresh
+cigar.
+
+"It will be a just retribution," he interposed, with smothered
+fierceness. "Under the guise of neutrality, America has been
+responsible for the lives of hundreds of thousands of my countrymen.
+That we never can, we never shall, forget. The wealth which makes these
+people fat is blood-money, and Germany will take her vengeance."
+
+"For whom do you speak?" Nikasti inquired.
+
+Von Schwerin rose from his place.
+
+"For the greatest of all."
+
+"Do I take anything but words to Tokio?" the Japanese asked softly.
+
+Fischer unfolded a pocketbook and drew from it a parchment envelope.
+
+"You take this letter," he said, "which I brought over myself from
+Berlin, signed and written not more than three weeks ago. I ask you to
+believe in no vague promises. I bring you the pledged faith of the
+greatest ruler on earth. What do you say, Nikasti? Will you accept our
+mission? Will you go back to Tokio and see the Emperor?"
+
+Nikasti bowed.
+
+"I will go back," he promised. "I will sail as soon as I can make
+arrangements. But I cannot tell you what the issue may be. We Japanese
+are not a self-seeking nation. Above and higher than all things are our
+ideals and our honour. I cannot tell what answer our Sovereign may give
+to this."
+
+"These are the days when the truest patriotism demands the most sublime
+sacrifices," Von Schwerin declared. "Above all the ethics of
+individuals comes the supreme necessity of self-preservation."
+
+The Japanese smiled slightly.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "there speaks the philosophy of your country, Baron, the
+paean of materialism."
+
+"The destinies of nations," Baron von Schwerin exclaimed, "are above
+the man-made laws of a sentimental religion! One needs, nowadays, more
+than to survive. It is necessary to flourish."
+
+Nikasti stood suddenly to attention.
+
+"It is Mr. Van Teyl who returns," he warned them.
+
+He glided from the room, shaking out a little the dress coat which he
+had been carrying. The two men looked after him. Fischer threw his
+cigar savagely away and lit another.
+
+"Curse these orientals!" he muttered. "They listen and listen, and one
+never knows. Van Teyl won't be here for hours. That was just an excuse
+to get away."
+
+But there was a smile of triumph on Von Schwerin's lips.
+
+"I know them better than you do, Fischer," he declared. "Nikasti is our
+man!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+High up in one of the topmost chambers of the Hotel Plaza, Nikasti,
+after his conference with Von Schwerin and Fischer, sought solitude. He
+opened the high windows, out of which he could scarcely see, dragged up
+a chest of drawers and perched himself, Oriental fashion, on the top,
+his long yellow fingers intertwined around his knees, his soft brown
+eyes gazing over the wooded slopes of the Park. He was away from the
+clamour of tongues, from the poisoned clouds of sophistry, even from
+the disturbance of his own thoughts, incited by specious arguments to
+some form of reciprocity. Here he sat in the clouds and searched for
+the true things. His eyes seemed to be travelling over the battlefields
+of Europe. He saw the swaying fortunes of mighty armies, he looked into
+council chambers, he seemed to feel the pulses of the great world force
+which kept going this most amazing Juggernaut. He saw the furnaces of
+Japan, blazing by night and day; saw the forms of hundreds of thousands
+of his fellow creatures bent to their task; saw the streams of ships
+leaving his ports, laden down with stores; saw the great guns speeding
+across Siberia, the endless trains of ammunition, the rifles, food for
+the famine-stricken giants who beat upon the air with empty fists. He
+saw the gold come streaming back. He saw it poured into the banks, the
+pockets of the merchants, the homes of his people. He saw brightening
+days throughout the land. He saw the slow but splendid strength of the
+nation rejoicing in its new possibilities. And beyond that, what?
+Wealth was the great means towards the great end, but if the great end
+were once lost sight of, there was no more hideous poison than that
+stream of enervating prosperity. He remembered his own diatribes
+concerning the decadence of England; how he had pointed to the gold
+poison, to the easy living of the poor, the blatant luxury of the rich.
+He had pointed to the soft limbs, the cities which had become pools of
+sensuality, to the daily life which, calling for no effort, had seen
+the passing of the spirit and the triumph of the gross. And what about
+his own people? Mankind was the same the world over. The gold which was
+bringing strength and life to the nation might very soon exude the same
+poisonous fumes, might very soon be laying its thrall upon a people to
+whom living had become an easier thing. However it might be for other,
+the Western nations, for his own he firmly believed that war alone,
+with its thousand privations, its call to the chivalry of his people,
+was the one great safeguard. China! The days had gone by when the
+taking of China could inspire. It was to greater things they must look.
+Australia. New Zealand! Had any Western race the right to flaunt her
+Empire's flag in Asiatic seas? And America! Once again he felt the slow
+rising of wrath as he recalled the insults of past years ... the
+adventurous sons of his country treated like savages and negroes by
+that uncultured, strong-limbed race of coarse-fibered, unimaginative
+materialists. There was a call, indeed, to the soul of his country to
+avenge, to make safe, the homes and lives of her colonists. Across the
+seas he looked into the council chambers of the wise men of his race.
+He saw the men whose word would tell. He watched their faces turned
+towards him, waiting; heard the beginning of the conflict of thoughts
+and minds--blind fidelity to the cause which they had espoused, or a
+rougher, more splendid, more selfish stroke for the greatness of Japan
+and Japan only. "If we break our faith we lose our honour," one
+murmured. "There is no honour save the care of my people," he heard one
+of his greatest countrymen reply.
+
+So he sat and thought, revolved in his mind arguments, morals,
+philosophy. It was the problem which had confronted the great Emperor,
+his own ancestor, who had lived for three months on the floor of the
+Temple, asking but one question of the Silent Powers: "Through what
+gate shall I lead my nation to greatness?"
+
+The senses of the man who crouched in his curious attitude, with his
+eyes still piercing the heavens, were mobile and extraordinary things.
+No disturbing sounds had reached him from outside. His isolation seemed
+complete and impregnable. Yet, without turning his head, he was
+perfectly conscious of the slow opening of the door. His whole frame
+stiffened. He was conscious for one bitter second of a lapse from the
+careful guarding of his ways. That second passed, however, and left him
+prepared even for danger, his brain and muscles alike tense. He turned
+his head. The expression of slow surprise, which even parted his lips
+and narrowed his eyes, was only half assumed.
+
+"What do you wish?" he asked.
+
+Lutchester did not for a moment reply. He had closed the door behind
+him carefully, and was looking around the room now with evident
+interest. Its bareness of furniture and decoration were noteworthy, but
+on the top of the ugly chest of drawers was a great bowl of roses, a
+queer little ivory figure set in an arched frame of copper--a figure
+almost sacerdotal, with its face turned towards the east--and a little
+shower of rose leaves, which could scarcely have fallen there by
+accident, at the foot of the pedestal. Lutchester inclined his head
+gravely, as he looked towards it, a gesture entirely reverential,
+almost an obeisance. Nikasti's eyes were clouded with curiosity. He
+slipped down to the ground.
+
+"I have travelled in your country," Lutchester said gravely, as though
+in explanation. "I have visited your temples. I may say that I have
+prayed there."
+
+"And now?" Nikasti asked.
+
+"I am for my country what you are for yours," Lutchester proceeded.
+"You see, I know when it is best to speak the truth. I am in New York
+because you are in New York, and if you leave on Saturday for Japan it
+may happen--of this I am not sure--but I say that it may happen that I
+shall accompany you."
+
+"I shall be much honoured," Nikasti murmured.
+
+"You came here," Lutchester continued, "to meet an emissary from
+Berlin. Your country, which could listen to no official word from any
+one of her official enemies, can yet, through you, learn what is in
+their minds. You have seen to-day Fischer and the Baron von Schwerin.
+Fischer has probably presented to you the letter which he has brought
+from Berlin. Von Schwerin has expounded further the proposition and the
+price which form part of his offer."
+
+Nikasti's face was imperturbable, but there was trouble in his eyes.
+
+"You have found your way to much knowledge,", he muttered.
+
+"I must find my way to more. I must know what Germany offers you. I
+must know what is at the back of your mind when you repeat this offer
+in Tokio."
+
+"You can make, then, the unwilling speak?" Nikasti demanded.
+
+"Even that is amongst the possibilities," Lutchester affirmed. "Strange
+things have been done for the cause which such as you and I revere."
+
+Nikasti showed his white teeth for a moment in a smile meant to be
+contemptuous.
+
+"It is a great riddle, this, which we toss from one to the other," he
+observed. "I am the simple valet of two gentlemen living in the hotel.
+You have listened, perhaps, to fairy tales, or dreamed them yourself,
+sir."
+
+"It is no fairy tale," Lutchester rejoined, "that you are Prince
+Nikasti, the third son of the great Marquis Ato, that you and I met
+more than once in London when you were living there some years ago;
+that you travelled through our country, and drew up so scathing an
+indictment of our domestic and industrial position that, but for their
+clumsy diplomacy, your country would probably have made overtures to
+Germany. Ever since those days I have wondered about you. I have
+wondered whether you are with your country in her friendship towards
+England."
+
+"I have no friends but my country's friends," Nikasti declared, "no
+enemies save her enemies. But to-day those things of which you have
+spoken do not concern me. I am the Japanese valet of Mr. Fischer and
+Mr. Van Teyl."
+
+Lutchester, as though by accident, came a step further into the room.
+Nikasti's eyes never left his face. Perhaps at that moment each knew
+the other's purpose, though their tongues clung to the other things.
+
+"Will you talk to me, Japan?" Lutchester asked calmly. "You have
+listened to Germany. I am England."
+
+"If you have anything to say," Nikasti replied, "Baron Yung is at
+Washington."
+
+"You and I know well," Lutchester continued, "that ambassadors are but
+the figureheads in the world's history. Speak to me of the things which
+concern our nations, Nikasti. Tell me of the letter you bear to the
+Emperor. You have nothing to lose. Sit down and talk to me, man to man.
+You have heard Germany. Hear England. Tell me of the promises made to
+you within the last hour, and I will show you how they can never be
+kept. Let us talk of your country's future. You and I can tell one
+another much."
+
+"A valet knows nothing," Nikasti murmured.
+
+Lutchester came a step nearer. Nikasti, in retreating, was now almost
+in a corner of the room.
+
+"Listen," Lutchester went on, "for many years I have suspected that you
+are an enemy of my country. That is the reason why, when our
+Intelligence Department learnt of your mission, I chose to come myself
+to meet you. And now we meet, Nikasti, face to face, and all that you
+are willing to do for your country, I am willing to do for mine, and
+unless you sit down and talk this matter out with me as man to man, you
+will not leave New York."
+
+The arm of the Japanese stole with the most perfect naturalness inside
+his coat, and Lutchester knew then that the die was cast. The line of
+blue steel flashed out too late. The hand which gripped the
+strangely-shaped little knife was held as though in a vice, and
+Lutchester's other arm was suddenly thrown around the neck of his
+assailant, his fingers pressed against his windpipe.
+
+"Drop the knife," he ordered.
+
+It fell clattering on to the hard floor. Nikasti, however, twisted
+himself almost free, took a flying leap sideways, and seized his
+adversary's leg. In another moment he came down upon the floor with a
+crash. Lutchester's grip upon him, a little crueller now, was like a
+band of steel.
+
+"There are many ways of playing this game. It is you who have chosen
+this one," he said. "It's no use, Nikasti. I know as much of your own
+science as you do. You're my man now until I choose to let you free,
+and before I do that I am going to read the letter which you are taking
+to Japan."
+
+Nikasti's eyes were red with fury, but every movement was torture.
+Lutchester held him easily with one hand, felt over him with the other,
+drew the letter from his vest, and, shaking it free from its envelope,
+held it out and read it. When he had finished, he replaced it in the
+envelope and pushed it back into the other's breast pocket.
+
+"Now," he directed, "you can get up."
+
+Nikasti scrambled to his feet. There were livid marks under his eyes.
+For a moment he had lost all his vitality, he was like a beaten
+creature.
+
+"You would never have done this," he muttered, "ten years ago, I grow
+old."
+
+"So that is the letter which you are taking to your Emperor!"
+Lutchester said. "You think it worth while! You can really see the
+German fleet steaming past the British Isles, out into the Atlantic,
+and bombarding New York!"
+
+Nikasti made no reply. Lutchester looked at him for a moment
+thoughtfully. There was a light once more in the beaten man's eyes--a
+queer, secretive gleam. Lutchester stooped down and picked up the knife
+from the floor.
+
+"Nikasti," he enjoined, "listen to me, for your country's sake. The
+promise contained in that letter is barely worth the paper it is
+written on, so long as the British fleet remains what it is. But, apart
+from that, I tell you here, of my own profound conviction--and I will
+prove it to you before many days are past--Germany does not intend to
+keep this promise."
+
+Nikasti made no reply. His face was expressionless.
+
+"Germany has but one idea," Lutchester continued. "She means to play
+you and America off against one another. I have found out her offer to
+you. All I can say is, if you take it seriously you are not the man I
+think you. Now I will tell you what I am going to do. I am going to
+find out her offer to America. I will bring that to you, and you shall
+see the two side by side. Then you shall know how much you can rely
+upon a country whose diplomacy is bred and born of lies, who cheats at
+every move of the game, who makes you a deliberate offer here which she
+never has the least intention of keeping. Have you anything to say to
+me, Nikasti?"
+
+Nikasti raised his eyes for one moment.
+
+"I have nothing to say," he replied. "I am the valet of Mr. Fischer and
+Mr. Van Teyl. These things are not of my concern."
+
+Lutchester shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Whatever you may be," he concluded, "and however much you may resent
+all that has happened, I know that you will wait. I might go direct to
+Washington, but I prefer to come to you, if it remains possible. Before
+you leave this country we will meet again, and, when you have heard me,
+you will tear that letter which you are treasuring next your heart into
+small pieces."
+
+Lutchester turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.
+Nikasti crouched in his place without movement. The ache in his heart
+seemed to be shining out of his face. He turned slowly towards the
+little figure of black ivory, his head drooped lower--he was filled
+with a great shame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Fischer raised his eyebrows in mild surprise to find Nikasti waiting
+for him in the sitting room that evening, with his overcoat and evening
+hat. He closed the door of the bedroom from which he had issued
+carefully behind him.
+
+"You don't need to go on with this business now that we have had our
+little talk," he remonstrated.
+
+"I cannot leave until the twentieth," Nikasti replied. "I think it best
+that I remain here. Your cocktail, sir."
+
+Fischer accepted the glass with a good-humoured little laugh.
+
+"Well," he said, "I suppose you know what you want to do, but it seems
+to me unnecessary. Say, is anything wrong with you? You seem shaken,
+somehow."
+
+"I am quite well," Nikasti declared gravely. "I am very well indeed."
+
+Fischer stared at him searchingly from behind his spectacles.
+
+"You don't look it," he observed. "If you'll take my advice, you'll get
+away from here and rest somewhere quietly for a few days. Why don't you
+try one of the summer hotels on Long Island?"
+
+Nikasti shook his head.
+
+"Until I sail," he decided, "I stay here. It is better so."
+
+"You know best, of course," Fischer replied. "Where's Mr. Van Teyl?"
+
+"He has gone out with his sister, sir--the young lady in the next
+suite," Nikasti announced.
+
+Fischer sighed for a moment. Then he finished his cocktail, drew on his
+gloves, and turned towards the door.
+
+"Well, good night," he said. "Perhaps you are wise to stay here.
+Remember always what it is that you carry about with you."
+
+"I shall remember," Nikasti promised.
+
+Fischer entered his automobile and drove to a fashionable restaurant in
+the neighbourhood of Fifth Avenue. Arrived here, he made his way to a
+room on the first floor, into which he was ushered by one of the head
+waiters. Von Schwerin was already there, talking with a little company
+of men.
+
+"Ah, our friend Fischer!" the latter exclaimed. "That makes our number
+complete."
+
+A waiter handed around cocktails. Fischer smiled as he raised his glass
+to his lips.
+
+"It is something, at least," he confided, "to be back in a country
+where one can speak freely. I raise my arm. Von Schwerin and
+gentlemen--'To the Fatherland!'"
+
+They all drank fervently and with a little guttural murmur. Von
+Schwerin set down his empty glass. He was looking a little glum.
+
+"In many ways, my dear Fischer," he said, "one sympathises with that
+speech of yours; but the truth is best, and it is to talk truths that
+we have met this evening. We are gaining no ground here. I am not sure
+that we are not losing."
+
+There was a moment's disturbed and agitated silence.
+
+"It is bad to hear," one little man acknowledged, with a sigh, "but who
+can doubt it? There is a fever which has caught hold of this country,
+which blazes in the towns and smoulders in the country places, and that
+is the fever of money-making. Men are blinded with the passion of it.
+They tell me that even Otto Schmidt in Milwaukee has turned his great
+factories into ammunition works."
+
+Von Schwerin's eyes flashed.
+
+"Let him be careful," he muttered, "that one morning those are not
+blackened walls upon which he looks! We go to dinner now, gentlemen,
+and, until we are alone afterwards, not one word concerning the great
+things."
+
+The partition doors leading into the dining room were thrown back and
+the little company of men sat down to dine. There were fourteen of
+them, and their names were known throughout the world. There was a
+steel millionaire, half-a-dozen Wall Street magnates, a clothing
+manufacturer, whose house in Fifth Avenue was reputed to have cost two
+millions. There was not one of them who was not a patriot--to Germany.
+They ate and drank through the courses of an abnormally long dinner
+with the businesslike thoroughness of their race. When at last the
+coffee and liqueurs had been served, the waiters by prearrangement
+disappeared, and with a little flourish Von Schwerin locked the door.
+Once more he raised his glass.
+
+"To the Kaiser and the Fatherland!" he cried in a voice thick with
+emotion.
+
+For a moment a little flash of something almost like spirituality
+lightened the gathering. They were at least men with a purpose, and an
+unselfish purpose.
+
+"Oscar Fischer," Von Schwerin said, "my friends, all of you, you know
+how strenuous my labours have been during the last year. You know that
+three times the English Ambassador has almost demanded my recall, and
+three times the matter has hung in the balance. I have watched events
+in Washington, not through my own but through a thousand eyes. My
+fingers are on the pulse of the country, so what I say to you needs
+nothing in the way of substantiation. The truth is best.
+Notwithstanding all my efforts, and the efforts of every one of you,
+the great momentum of public feeling, from California to Massachusetts,
+has turned slowly towards the cause of our enemies. Washington is
+hopelessly against us. The huge supplies which leave these shores day
+by day for England and France will continue. Fresh plants are being
+laid down for the manufacture of weapons and ammunition to be used
+against our country. The hand of diplomacy is powerless. We can
+struggle no longer. Even those who favour our cause are drunk with the
+joy of the golden harvest they are reaping. This country has spoken
+once and for all, and its voice is for our most hated enemy."
+
+There were a variety of guttural and sympathetic ejaculations. A dozen
+earnest faces turned towards Von Schwerin.
+
+"Diplomacy," Von Schwerin continued, "has failed. We come to the next
+step. There have been isolated acts of self-sacrifice, splendid in
+themselves but systemless. Only the day before yesterday a great
+factory at Detroit was burned to the ground, and I can assure you,
+gentlemen, I who know, that a thousand bales of cloth, destined for
+France, lie in a charred, heap amongst the ruins. That fire was no
+accident."
+
+There was a brief silence. Fischer nodded approvingly. Von Schwerin
+filled his glass.
+
+"This," he went on, "was the individual act of a brave and faithful
+patriot. The time has come for us, too, to remember that we are at war.
+I have striven for you with the weapons of diplomacy and I have failed.
+I ask you now to face the situation with me--to make use of the only
+means left to us."
+
+No one hesitated. Possibly ruin stared them in the face, but not one
+flinched. Their heads drew closer together. They discussed the ways and
+means of the new campaign.
+
+"We must add largely to our numbers," Von Schwerin said, "and we had
+better have a fund. So far as regards money, I take it for granted--"
+
+There was a little chorus of fierce whispers. Five million dollars were
+subscribed by men who were willing, if necessary, to find fifty.
+
+"It is enough," their leader assured them. "Much of our labours will be
+amongst those to whom money is no object. Only remember, all of you,
+this. We shall be a society without a written word, with no roll of
+membership, without documents or institution, for complicity in the
+things which follow will mean ruin. You are willing to face that?"
+
+Again that strange, passionate instinct of unanimity prevailed. To all
+appearance it was a gathering of commonplace, commercialised and
+bourgeois, easy-living men, but the touch of the spirit was there.
+Fischer leaned a little forward.
+
+"In two months' time," he said, "every factory in America which is
+earning its blood money shall be in danger. There will be a reign of
+terror. Each State will operate independently and secretly."
+
+"Our friend Fischer," Von Schwerin told them, "has promised to stay
+over here for the present to organise this undertaking. I, alas! am
+bound to remain always a little aloof, but the time may come, and very
+soon, too, when I shall be a free lance. On that day I shall throw my
+lot in with yours, to the last drop of my blood and the last hour of my
+liberty. Until then, trust Oscar Fischer. He has done great deeds
+already. He will show you the way to more."
+
+Fischer took off his spectacles and wiped them.
+
+"Our first proceeding," he said, "sounds paradoxical. It must be that
+we cease to exist. There can be no longer any meetings amongst us who
+stand in this country for Germany. Gatherings of this sort are
+finished. We meet, one or two of us, perhaps, by accident, in the clubs
+and in the streets, in our houses and perhaps in the restaurants, but
+the bond which unites us, and which no human power could ever sever
+because it is of the spirit, that bond from to-night is intangible.
+Wait, all of you, for a message. The task given to each shall not be
+too great."
+
+Mr. Max H. Bookam, a little black-bearded man who had started life
+tailoring in a garret, and was now a multi-millionaire, raised his
+glass.
+
+"No task shall seem too great," he muttered. "No risk shall make us
+afraid. Even the exile shall take up his burden."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Mr. Fischer's business later on that night led him into unsavoury
+parts. He left his car at the corner of Fourteenth Street, and, after a
+moment's reflection, as though to refresh his memory, he made his way
+slowly eastwards. He wore an unusually shabby overcoat, and a felt hat
+drawn over his eyes, both of which garments he had concealed in the
+automobile. Even then, however, his appearance made him an object of
+some comment. A little gang of toughs first jostled him and then turned
+and followed in his footsteps. A man came out of the shadows, and they
+broke away with an oath.
+
+"That cop'll get his head broke some day," Fischer heard one of them
+mutter, with appropriate adjectives.
+
+There were others who looked curiously at him. One man's hand he felt
+running over his pockets as he pushed past him. A couple of women came
+screaming down the street and seized him by the arms. He shook himself
+free, and listened without a word to their torrent of abuse. The lights
+here seemed to burn more dimly. Even the flares from the drinking dens
+seemed secretive, and the shadowy places impenetrable. It was before a
+saloon that at last he paused, listened for a moment to the sound of a
+cracked piano inside, and entered. The place was packed, and,
+fortunately for him, a scrap of some interest between two
+villainous-looking Italians in a distant corner was occupying the
+attention of many of the patrons. A man with white, staring face was
+banging at a crazy piano without a movement of his body, his whole
+energies apparently directed towards drowning the tumult of oaths and
+hideous execrations which came from the two combatants. A drunken
+Irishman, rolling about on the floor, kicked at him savagely as he
+passed. An undersized little creature, with the face of an old man but
+the figure of a boy, marked him from a distant corner and crept
+stealthily towards his side. Fischer reached the counter at last and
+stood there for a moment, waiting. Two huge, rough-looking negroes, in
+soiled linen clothes, were dispensing the drinks. As one of them
+passed, Fischer struck the counter with his forefinger, six or seven
+times, observing a particular rhythm. The negro started, turned his
+heavily-lidded, repulsive eyes upon Fischer, and nodded slightly. He
+handed out the drink he had in his hand, and leaned over the counter.
+
+"Want the boss?" he demanded.
+
+Fischer assented. The negro lifted the flap of the counter and opened a
+trapdoor, leading apparently into a cellar beneath.
+
+"Step right down," he muttered. "Don't let the boys catch on. Get out
+of that, Tim," he added thickly to the dwarflike figure, whose slender
+fingers were suddenly nearing Fischer's neck.
+
+The creature seemed to melt away. Fischer dived and descended a dozen
+steps or so into another bare looking apartment, the door of which was
+half open. There were three men seated at the solitary deal table,
+which was almost the only article of furniture to be seen. One,
+sombrely dressed in legal black, with a pale face and fiercely
+inquiring eyes, half rose to his feet as the newcomer entered.
+Another's hand went to his hip pocket. The man who was sitting between
+the two, however--a great red-headed Irishman--rose to his feet and
+pushed them back to their places.
+
+"There's no cause for alarm, now, boys," he declared. "This is a friend
+of mine. I won't make you acquainted, because we're all better friends
+strangers down in these parts. Hop it off, you two. Sit down here, Mr.
+Stranger."
+
+The two men stole away. The Irishman poured out a glassful of neat
+whisky and passed it to his visitor.
+
+"Clients of mine," he explained. "Tim Crooks is in politics. Got your
+message, boss. What's the figure?"
+
+"Two thousand!"
+
+The Irishman whistled and looked thoughtfully down at the table.
+
+"Isn't it enough?" Fischer asked.
+
+"Enough?" was the hoarse reply. "Why, there isn't one of my toughs that
+wouldn't go rat-hunting for a quarter of that. If it's any one in these
+parts, twelve hours is all I want."
+
+"It isn't!"
+
+The Irishman's face fell.
+
+"Some swell, I suppose? Fifth Avenue way and the swagger parts, eh?"
+
+Fischer assented silently. His host poured himself out some whisky and
+drank it as though it were water.
+
+"You see, boss," he pointed out, "it's no use sending greenhorns out on
+a job like that, because they only squeak if they're pinched, and
+pinched they're sure to be; and all my regulars are what we call in
+sanctuary."
+
+"You mean they are hiding already?"
+
+"That's some truth," was the grim admission. "The cops ain't going to
+trouble to come after 'em, so long as they keep here, but they'd nab
+'em fast enough if they showed their noses beyond the end of
+Fourteenth. Still, I'd like to oblige you, guv'nor. I don't know who
+you are, and don't want, but my boys speak fine of you. You know Ed
+Swindles?"
+
+"Not by name," Fischer confessed.
+
+"He did that little job up at Detroit," the Irishman went on, dropping
+his voice a little. "I tell you he's a genius at handling a bomb, is
+Ed. Blew that old factory into brick-ends, he did. He's in the saloon
+upstairs--got his girl with him. They've been doing a round of the
+dancing saloons."
+
+"That's all right, but what about this job?" Fischer inquired, a little
+impatiently.
+
+The Irishman glanced behind him. Then he dropped his voice a little.
+
+"Look here, guv'nor," he said, "I've some idea, if it pans out. You've
+heard of the Heste case?"
+
+"You mean the girl who was murdered?"
+
+"Yes! Well, the chap that did it is within a few feet of where we're
+sitting."
+
+Fischer took off his spectacles and rubbed them. In the dim light his
+face looked more grim and powerful than ever.
+
+"Isn't that a little dangerous?" he observed. "The police mean having
+him."
+
+"You're dead right," the Irishman replied. "They've got to have him,
+and he knows it. They'd keep their hands off any one in these parts if
+they could, but this bloke's different. He done it too thick, and he's
+got the public squealing. Now if we could get him out for long enough,
+he's the man for your job. Come right along, boss."
+
+He rose heavily to his feet, crossed the room, and threw open the door
+of what was little more than a cupboard at the further end. The place
+was in darkness, but a human form sprang suddenly upright. His white
+face and glaring eyes were the only visible objects in a shroud of
+darkness.
+
+"That's all right, kid," the Irishman said soothingly. "No cops yet.
+This is a gentleman on business. Wait till I fix a light."
+
+He stepped back, and brought a candle from the table at which he had
+been seated. Fischer helped him light it, and by degrees the interior
+of the little apartment was illuminated. Its contents were almost
+negligible--there was simply a foul piece of rug in the corner, and a
+broken chair. With his back to the wall crouched a slim, apparently
+young man, with a perfectly bloodless face and black eyes under which
+were blue lines. His clothes were torn and covered with dust, as though
+he had dragged himself about the floor, and one of his hands was
+bleeding.
+
+"The gentleman's on business, Jake," his host repeated.
+
+"Give me some whisky," the young man mumbled.
+
+The Irishman shaded his eyes.
+
+"Holy Moses! why, you've finished that bottle!" he exclaimed.
+
+"It's like water," the fugitive replied in a hot whisper, "I drink and
+I feel nothing; I taste nothing--I forget nothing! Give me something
+stronger."
+
+He tossed off without hesitation the tumbler half full of whisky which
+his guardian fetched him. Then he came out.
+
+"I'm sick of this," he declared. "I'll sit at your table. It's no use
+talking to me of jobs," he went on. "I couldn't get out of here. I made
+for the docks, but they headed me off. They know where I am. They'll
+have me sooner or later."
+
+"Yes, they'll have you right enough," the Irishman assented; "but if
+there was any chance in the world, this gent could give it to you. He's
+got a job he wants done up amongst the swells in Fifth Avenue, and
+there's money enough in it to buy Anna herself, if you want her. Anna's
+our real toff down here," he explained, turning to Fischer, "and all
+the boys are crazy about her."
+
+Jake shook his head, unimpressed. He fixed his eyes upon Fischer,
+moistened his lips a little, and spoke in a sort of croaky whisper.
+
+"Money's no use to me," he said, "nor women either--I'm through with
+them. You know what I done? I killed my girl. That's what I'm going to
+the chair for. But if I could get out of this, I'd do your job. I'm
+kind of hating people. I can't get my girl's face out of my mind.
+Perhaps if I did your job I'd have another one to think about."
+
+"Pleasant company, ain't he?" the Irishman grunted. "He's the real
+goods."
+
+Fischer stared at the young man as though fascinated. He seemed beyond
+and outside human comprehension. Their host was sitting with his hands
+in his pockets and his feet on another chair. The braces hung from his
+shoulders upon the floor, his collarless shirt had fallen a little
+open. His face, with its little tuft of red side whiskers and unshaven
+chin, was reminiscent of the forests.
+
+"If you want this job fixed, Mr. Stranger," he said, "I don't know as
+Jake here couldn't take it on. It'd have to be done like this. Jake's a
+real toney chauffeur--drive anything. If you had your automobile at a
+spot I could tell you of one evening, just at dusk, I might get him
+that far, in a set of chauffeur's clothes. Once on the box of your
+auto, he'd be out of this and could give 'em the slip for a bit. It's
+the only way I can think of, to get him near the game."
+
+"The arrangement would suit me," Fischer admitted.
+
+Jake suddenly showed a gleaming set of unexpectedly white teeth. His
+eyes stared more than ever.
+
+"I'm game! I'm on to this," he cried fiercely. "You can have all there
+is coming to me, Sullivan, if I get nabbed, but I'm going to take my
+risk. I hate this hole! It's a rat's den."
+
+"Then get you back to your cupboard, Jake," the Irishman enjoined.
+"I've got to talk business to the gent."
+
+The young man rose to his feet. He took the bottle of whisky under his
+arm. His face was still ashen, but his tone was steady. He gripped
+Fischer by the arm.
+
+"I will do your job," he promised. "I will do it thoroughly."
+
+He slouched across the floor, entered his cupboard, and disappeared.
+Fischer was suddenly aware of the moisture upon his forehead. There was
+something animallike, absolutely inhuman, about this creature with whom
+he had made his murderous bargain.
+
+"I have no money here, of course," he reminded his companion.
+
+"Don't know as I blame you, guv'nor," the other observed with a grin.
+"I saw my toughs lay out a guy only the other day for flashing a
+smaller wad than you'd carry. You know the rules, and I guess I'll ring
+up the bank to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock. Does that go?"
+
+"You'll find the deposit there," Fischer promised. "You'd better let me
+know when he's ready to take the job on."
+
+The Irishman walked to the foot of the steps with his visitor.
+
+"Give Joe the double knock on the trapdoor," he directed, "and get out
+of the saloon as quick as you can. There's a Dago about there keeps our
+hands full. Got anything with you?"
+
+Fischer nodded. His hand stole out of his overcoat pocket.
+
+"Better give them one if they look like trouble," his host advised.
+"They've plenty of spunk, but I can tell you they make tracks for their
+holes if they hear one of those things bark."
+
+"They shall hear it fast enough, if they try to hustle me," Fischer
+observed grimly.
+
+"You've some pluck," the Irishman declared, as he watched his departing
+guest ascend the steps. "Sure, this is no place for cowards, anyway.
+And good night and good luck to you! Jake will do your job slick, if
+any one could."
+
+Fischer beat his little tattoo upon the trapdoor, crawled through it
+and underneath the flap in the counter, out into the saloon. He paused
+for a moment to look around, on his way to the door. The fight was
+apparently over, for every one was standing at the counter, drinking
+with a swarthy-faced man whose cheeks were stained with blood. From a
+distant corner came the sound of groans. The air seemed heavier than
+ever with foul tobacco smoke. The man at the piano still thrashed out
+his unmelodious chords. Some women in a corner were pretending to
+dance. One or two of them looked curiously at Fischer, but he passed
+out, unchallenged. Even the air of the slum outside seemed pure and
+fresh after the heated den he had left. He reached the corner of the
+street in safety and stepped quickly into his car. He threw both
+windows wide open and murmured an order to the chauffeur. Then he
+leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. He was a man not
+overburdened with imagination, but it seemed to him just then that he
+would never be able altogether to forget the face of that ghastly,
+dehumanised creature, crouching like some terrified wild animal in his
+fetid refuge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Mrs. Theodore Hastings was forty-eight years old, which her friends
+said was the reason why her mansion on Fifth Avenue was furnished and
+lit with the delicate sombreness of an old Italian palace. There was
+about it none of the garishness, the almost resplendent brilliancy
+associated with the abodes of many of our neighbours. Although her
+masseuse confidently assured her that she looked twenty-eight, Mrs.
+Hastings preferred not to put the matter to the test. She received her
+carefully selected dinner guests in a great library with cedarwood
+walls, furnished with almost Victorian sobriety, and illuminated by
+myriads of hidden lights. Pamela, being a relative, received the
+special consideration of an affectionately bestowed embrace.
+
+"Pamela, my child, wasn't it splendid I heard that you were in New
+York!" she exclaimed. "Quite by accident, too. I think you treat your
+relatives shamefully."
+
+Her niece laughed.
+
+"Well, anyhow, you're the first of them I've seen at all, and directly
+Jim told me he was coming to you, I made him ring up in case you had
+room for me."
+
+"Jimmy was a dear," Mrs. Hastings declared, "and, of course, there
+couldn't be a time when there wouldn't be room for you. Even now, at
+the last moment, though, I haven't quite made up my mind where to put
+you. Choose, dear. Will you have a Western bishop or a rather dull
+Englishman?"
+
+"What is the name of the Englishman?" Pamela asked, with sudden
+intuition.
+
+"Lutchester, dear. Quite a nice name, but I know nothing about him. He
+brought letters to your uncle. Rather a queer time for Englishmen to be
+travelling about, we thought, but still, there he is. Seems to have
+found some people he knows--and I declare he is coming towards you!"
+
+"I met him in London," Pamela whispered, "and I never could get on with
+bishops."
+
+The dinner table was large, and arranged with that wonderful simplicity
+which Mrs. Hastings had adopted as the keynote of her New York parties.
+She had taken, in fact, simplicity under her wing and made a new thing
+of it. There were more flowers than silver, and cut glass than heavy
+plate. There seemed to be an almost ostentatious desire to conceal the
+fact that Mr. Hastings had robbed the American public of a good many
+million dollars.
+
+"Of course," Pamela declared, as they took their places, and she nodded
+a greeting to some friends around the table, "fate is throwing us
+together in the most unaccountable manner."
+
+"I accept its vagaries with resignation," Lutchester replied. "Besides,
+it is quite time we met again. You promised to show me New York, and I
+haven't seen you for days."
+
+"I don't even remember the promise," Pamela laughed, "but in any case I
+have changed my mind. I am not sure that you are the nice,
+simple-minded person you profess to be. I begin to have doubts about
+you."
+
+"Interest grows with mystery," Lutchester remarked complacently. "Let
+us hope that I am promoted in your mind."
+
+"Well, I am not at all sure. Of course, I am not an Englishman, so it
+is of no particular interest to me, but if you really came over here on
+important affairs, I am not sure that I approve of your playing golf
+the day after your arrival."
+
+"That, perhaps, was thoughtless," he admitted, "but one gets so short
+of exercise on board ship."
+
+"Of course," Pamela observed tentatively, "I'd forgive you even now if
+you'd only be a little more frank with me."
+
+"I am prepared to be candour itself," he assured her.
+
+"Tell me," she begged, "the whole extent of your mission in America?"
+
+He glanced around.
+
+"If we were alone," he replied, "I might court indiscretion so far as
+to tell you."
+
+"Then we will leave the answer to that question until after dinner,"
+she said.
+
+She talked to her left-hand neighbour for a few moments, and Lutchester
+followed suit. They turned to one another again, however, at the first
+opportunity.
+
+"I have conceived," she told him, "a great admiration for Mr. Oscar
+Fischer."
+
+"A very able man," Lutchester agreed.
+
+"He is not only that," Pamela continued, "but he is a man with large
+principles and great ideas."
+
+"Principles!" Lutchester murmured.
+
+"Of course, you don't like him," Pamela went on, "and I don't wonder at
+it. He is thoroughly German, isn't he?"
+
+"Almost prejudiced, I'm afraid," Lutchester assented.
+
+"Don't be silly," Pamela protested. "Why, he's German by birth, and
+although you English people are much too pig-headed to see any good in
+an enemy, I think you must admit that the way they all hang together--
+Germans, I mean, all over the world--is perfectly wonderful."
+
+"There have been a few remarks of the same sort," Lutchester reminded
+her, "about the inhabitants of the British Empire--Canadians,
+Australians, New Zealanders, for instance."
+
+"As a matter of fact," Pamela admitted generously, "I consider that
+your Colonials understand the word patriotism better than the ordinary
+Englishman. With them, as with the Germans, it is almost a passionate
+impulse. Your hearts may be in the right places, but you always give
+one the impression of finding the whole thing rather a bore."
+
+"Well, so it is," Lutchester insisted. "Who wants to give up a very
+agreeable profession and enter upon a career of bloodshed, abandon all
+one's habits, and lose most of one's friends? No, we are honest about
+that, at any rate! Germany may be enjoying this war. We aren't."
+
+"What was your profession?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"Diplomacy," Lutchester confided. "I intended to become an ambassador."
+
+"Do you think you have the requisite gifts?"
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"Secrecy, subtlety, caution, and highly-developed intelligence," she
+replied. "How's that?"
+
+"All those gifts," he assured her, "I possess."
+
+She fanned herself for a moment and looked at him.
+
+"We are not a modest race ourselves," she said, "but I think you can
+give us a lead. By the bye, were you playing golf with Senator Hamblin
+by accident the other afternoon?"
+
+"You mean the old Johnny down at Baltusrol?" he asked coolly. "I picked
+him up wandering about by the professionals' shed."
+
+"Did you talk politics with him?"
+
+"We gassed a bit about the war," Lutchester admitted cheerfully.
+
+Pamela laughed. She leaned a little forward. The buzz of conversation
+now was insistent all around them.
+
+"Of you two," she whispered, "I prefer Fischer."
+
+Lutchester considered the matter for some time.
+
+"Well, there's no accounting for tastes," he said presently. "I
+shouldn't have thought him exactly your type."
+
+"He may not be," Pamela confessed, "but at least he has the courage to
+speak what is in his mind."
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"So Fischer has taken you into his confidence, has he?" he murmured.
+"Well, now, that seems queer to me. I should have thought your
+interests would have lain the other way."
+
+"As an individual?"
+
+"As an American."
+
+"I am not wholly convinced of that."
+
+"Come," he protested, "what is the use of a friend from whom you are
+separated by an unnegotiable space?"
+
+"What unnegotiable space?"
+
+"The Atlantic."
+
+"And why is the Atlantic unnegotiable?"
+
+"Because of a little affair called the British fleet," Lutchester
+pointed out.
+
+"There is also," she reminded him drily, "a German fleet, and they
+haven't met yet."
+
+"Ah! I had almost forgotten there was such a thing," he murmured.
+"Where do they keep it?"
+
+"You know. You aren't nearly so stupid as you pretend to be," she said,
+a little impatiently. "I should like you so much better if you would be
+frank with me."
+
+"What about those qualifications for my ambassadorial career?" he
+reminded her--"Secrecy, subtlety, caution."
+
+"The master of these," she whispered, rising to her feet in response to
+her hostess's signal, "knows when to abandon them--"
+
+Lutchester changed his place to a vacant chair by James Van Teyl's
+side.
+
+"I was going to ask you, Mr. Van Teyl," he inquired, "whether your
+Japanese servant was altogether a success? I think I shall have to get
+a temporary servant while I am over here."
+
+"Nikasti was entirely Fischer's affair," Van Teyl replied, "and I can't
+say much about him as I have given up my share of the apartments at the
+Plaza. The fellow's all right, I dare say, but we hadn't the slightest
+use for a valet. The man on the floor's good enough for any one."
+
+"By the bye," Lutchester inquired, "is Fischer still in New York?"
+
+"No, he's in Washington," Van Teyl replied. "I believe he's expected
+back to-morrow.... Say, can I ask you a question?"
+
+Lutchester almost imperceptibly drew his chair a little closer.
+
+"Of course you can," he assented.
+
+"What I want to know," Van Teyl continued confidentially, "is how you
+get that long run on your cleek shots? I saw you play the sixteenth
+hole, and it looked to me as though the ball were never going to stop."
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"I have made a special study of that shot," he confided. "Yes, I can
+tell you how it's done, but it needs a lot of practice. It's done in
+turning over the wrists sharply just at the moment of impact. You get
+everything there is to be got into the stroke that way, and you keep
+the ball low, too."
+
+"Gee, I must try that!" Van Teyl observed, making spasmodic movements
+with his wrists. "When could we have a day down at Baltusrol?"
+
+"It will have to be next week, I'm afraid, if you don't mind,"
+Lutchester replied. "I've a good many appointments in New York, and I
+may have to go to Washington myself. By the bye, I thought our host
+lived there."
+
+"So he does," Van Teyl assented. "Nowadays, though, it seems to have
+become the fashion for politicians to own a house up in New York and do
+some entertaining here. They're after the financial interest, I
+suppose."
+
+"Is your uncle a keen politician?"
+
+"Keen as mustard," Van Teyl answered. "So's my aunt. She'd give her
+soul to have the old man nominated for the Presidency."
+
+"Any chance of it?"
+
+"Not an earthly! He'll come a mucker, though, some day, trying. He'd
+take any outside chance. For a clever man he's the vainest thing I
+know."
+
+Lutchester smiled enigmatically as he followed the example of the
+others and rose to his feet.
+
+"Even in America, then," he observed, "your great men have their
+weaknesses."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Fischer, exactly one week after his nocturnal visit to Fourteenth
+Street, hurried out of the train at the Pennsylvania Station, almost
+tore the newspapers from the news stand, glanced through them one by
+one and threw them back. The attendant, open-mouthed, ventured upon a
+mild protest. Fischer threw him a dollar bill, caught up his handbag,
+and made for the entrance. He was the first passenger from the
+Washington Limited to reach the street and spring into a taxi.
+
+"The Plaza Hotel," he ordered. "Get along."
+
+They arrived at the Plaza in less than ten minutes. Mr. Fischer tipped
+the driver lavishly, suffered the hall porter to take his bag, returned
+his greeting mechanically, and walked with swift haste to the tape
+machine. He held up the strips with shaking fingers, dropped them
+again, hurried to the lift, and entered his rooms. Nikasti was in the
+sitting-room, arranging some flowers. Fischer did not even stop to
+reply to his reverential greeting.
+
+"Where's Mr. Van Teyl?" he demanded.
+
+"Mr. Van Teyl has gone away, sir," was the calm reply. "He left here
+the day before yesterday. There is a letter."
+
+Fischer took no notice. He was already gripping the telephone receiver.
+
+"982, Wall," he said--"an urgent call."
+
+He stood waiting, his face an epitome of breathless suspense. Soon a
+voice answered him.
+
+"That the office of Neville, Brooks and Van Teyl?" he demanded. "Yes!
+Put me through to Mr. Van Teyl. Urgent!"
+
+Another few seconds of waiting, then once more he bent over the
+instrument.
+
+"That you, Van Teyl?... Yes, Fischer speaking. Oh, never mind about
+that! Listen. What price are Anglo-French?... No, say about what?...
+Ninety-five?... Sell me a hundred thousand.... What's that?... What?...
+Of course it's a big deal! Never mind that. I'm good enough, aren't I?
+There'll be no rise that'll wipe out half a million dollars. I've got
+that lying in cash at Guggenheimer's. If you need the money, I'll bring
+it you in half an hour. Get out into the market and sell. Damn you,
+what's it matter about news! Right! Sorry, Jim. See you later."
+
+Fischer put down the telephone and wiped his forehead. Notwithstanding
+the fatigue in his face, there was a glint of triumph there. He laid
+his hand upon Nikasti's shoulder.
+
+"My friend," he said, "there's big proof coming of what I said to you
+the other day. You'll find that letter you carry will mean a different
+thing now. There's news in the air."
+
+"There has been a great battle, perhaps?" Nikasti asked slowly.
+
+"All that is to be known you will hear before evening," Fischer
+replied. "Tell some one to send me some coffee. I have come through
+from Washington. I am tired."
+
+He sank a little abruptly into an easy-chair, took off his spectacles,
+and leaned his head back upon the cushions. In the sunlight his face
+was almost ghastly. A queer sense of weakness had suddenly assailed
+him. His mind flitted back through a vista of sleepless nights, of
+strenuous days, of passions held in leash, excitement ground down.
+
+"I am tired," he said. "Telephone down to the office, Nikasti, for a
+doctor."
+
+Nikasti obeyed, and his summons was promptly answered. The doctor who
+arrived was pleasantly but ominously grave. In the middle of his
+examination the telephone rang. Fischer, without ceremony, moved to the
+receiver. It was Van Teyl speaking.
+
+"I've sold your hundred thousand Anglo-French," he announced. "It's
+done the whole market in, though--knocked the bottom out of it. They've
+fallen a point and a half. Shall I begin to buy back for you? You'll
+make a bit."
+
+"Not a share," Fischer answered fiercely. "Wait!"
+
+"Have you any news you're keeping up your sleeve?" Van Teyl persisted.
+
+"If I have, it's my own affair," was the curt reply, "and I don't tell
+news over the telephone, anyway. Watch the market, and go on selling
+where you can."
+
+"I shall do as you order," Van Teyl replied, "but you're all against
+the general tone here. By the bye, you got my letter?"
+
+"I haven't opened it yet," Fischer snapped. "What's the matter?"
+
+"Pamela and I have taken a little flat in Fifty-eighth Street. Seems a
+little abrupt, but she didn't want to be alone, and she hates hotels.
+We felt sure you'd understand."
+
+"Yes, I understand," Fischer said. "Good-by! I'm busy."
+
+The doctor completed his examination. When he had finished he mentioned
+his fee.
+
+"You work too hard, and you live in an atmosphere of too great strain.
+The natural consequences are already beginning to show themselves. If I
+give you medicine, it will only encourage you to keep on wasting
+yourself, but you can have medicine if you like."
+
+"Send me something to take for the next fortnight," Fischer replied.
+"After that, I'll take my chance."
+
+The doctor wrote a prescription and took his leave. Fischer leaned back
+in his chair and closed his eyes. His mind travelled back through these
+latter days of his over-strenuous life. In such minutes of relaxation,
+few of which he permitted himself, he realised with bitter completeness
+the catastrophe which had overtaken him--him, Oscar Fischer, of all men
+on earth. Into his life of grim purposes, of lofty and yet narrow
+ambitions, of almost superhuman tenacity, had crept the one weakening
+strain whose presence in other men he had always scoffed at and
+derived. There was a new and enervating glamour over the days, a new
+and hatefully powerful rival for all his thoughts and dreams. Ten years
+ago, he reflected sadly, this might have made a different man of him,
+might have unlocked the gates into another, more peaceful and beautiful
+world, visions of which had sometimes vaguely disturbed him in his cold
+and selfish climb. Now it could only mean suffering. This was the first
+stroke. It was the assertion of humanity which was responsible for his
+present weakness. How far might it not drag him down?
+
+There should be a fight, at any rate, he told himself, as an hour or
+two later he made his way downtown. He paid several calls in the
+vicinity of Wall Street, and finished up in Van Teyl's office. That
+young man greeted him with a certain relief.
+
+"You know the tone of the market's still against you, Fischer," he
+warned him once more.
+
+Fischer threw himself into the client's easy-chair. The furniture in
+the office seemed less distinct than usual. He was conscious of a
+certain haziness of outline in everything. Van Teyl's face, even, was
+shrouded in a little mist. Then he suddenly found himself fighting
+fiercely, fighting for his consciousness, fighting against a wave of
+giddiness, a deadly sinking of the heart, a strange slackening of all
+his nerve power. The young stockbroker rose hastily to his feet.
+
+"Anything wrong, old fellow?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"A glass of water," Fischer begged.
+
+He was conscious of drinking it, vaguely conscious that he was winning.
+Soon the office had regained its ordinary appearance, his pulse was
+beating more regularly. He had once more the feeling of living--of
+living, though in a minor key.
+
+"A touch of liver," he murmured. "What did you say about the markets?"
+
+"You look pretty rotten," Van Teyl remarked sympathetically. "Shall I
+send out for some brandy?"
+
+"Not for me," Fischer scoffed. "I don't need it. What price are
+Anglo-French?"
+
+"Ninety-four. You've only done them in a point, after all, and that's
+nominal. I daresay I could get ten thousand back at that."
+
+"Let them alone," was the calm reply. "I'll sell another fifty thousand
+at ninety-four."
+
+"Look here," Van Teyl said, swinging round in his chair, "I like the
+business and I know you can finance it, but are you sure that you
+realise what you are doing? Every one believes Anglo-French have
+touched their bottom. They've only to go back to where they were--say
+five points--and you'd lose half a million."
+
+Fischer smiled a little wearily.
+
+"That small sum in arithmetic," he remonstrated, "had already passed
+through my brain. Send in your selling order, Jim, and come out to
+lunch with me. I've come straight through from Washington--only got in
+this morning."
+
+Van Teyl called in his clerk and gave a few orders. Then he took up his
+hat and left the office with his client.
+
+"From Washington, eh?" he remarked curiously, as they passed into the
+crowded streets. "So that accounts--"
+
+He broke off abruptly. His companion's warning fingers had tightened
+upon his arm.
+
+"Quite right!" Van Teyl confessed. "There's gossip enough about now,
+and they seem to have tumbled to it that you're our client. The office
+has been besieged this morning. Sorry, Ned, I'm busy," he went on, to a
+man who tried to catch his arm. "See you later, Fred. I'll be in after
+lunch, Mr. Borrodaile. No, nothing fresh that I know of."
+
+Fischer smiled grimly.
+
+"Got you into a kind of hornets' nest, eh?" he observed.
+
+"It's been like this all the morning," Van Teyl told him. "They believe
+I know something. Even the newspaper men are tumbling to it. We'll
+lunch up at the club. Maybe we'll get a little peace there."
+
+They stepped into the hall of a great building, and took one of the
+interminable row of lifts. A few minutes later they were seated at a
+side table in a dining room on the top floor of one of the huge modern
+skyscrapers. Below them stretched a silent panorama of the city;
+beyond, a picturesque view of the river. A fresh breeze blew in through
+the opened window. They were above the noise, even, of the street cars.
+
+"Order me a small bottle of champagne, James," Fischer begged, "and
+some steak."
+
+Van Teyl stared at his companion and laughed as he took up the wine
+list.
+
+"Well, that's the first time, Fischer, I've known you to touch a drop
+of anything before the evening! I'll have a whisky and soda with you.
+Thank God we're away from that inquisitive crowd for a few minutes! Are
+you going to give me an idea of what's moving?"
+
+Fischer watched the wine being poured into his glass.
+
+"Not until this evening," he said. "I want you to bring your sister and
+come and dine at the new roof-garden."
+
+"I don't know whether Pamela has any engagement," Van Teyl began, a
+little dubiously.
+
+"Please go and see," Fischer begged earnestly. "The telephones are just
+outside. Tell your sister that I particularly wish her to accept my
+invitation. Tell her that there will be news."
+
+Van Teyl went out to the telephone. Fischer sipped his champagne and
+crumbled up his bread, his eyes fixed a little dreamily on the grey
+river. He was already conscious of the glow of the wine in his veins.
+The sensation was half pleasurable, in a sense distasteful to him. He
+resented this artificial humanity. He had the feeling of a man who has
+stooped to be doped by a quack doctor. And he was a little afraid.
+
+His young companion returned triumphant.
+
+"Had a little trouble with Pamela," he observed, as he resumed his
+place at the table. "She was thinking of the opera with a girl friend
+she picked up this morning. However, the idea of news, I think,
+clinched it. We'll be at the Oriental at eight o'clock, eh?"
+
+Fischer looked up from the fascinating patchwork below. Already there
+was anticipation in his face.
+
+"I am very glad," he said. "There will certainly be news."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+"Now indeed I feel that I am in New York," Pamela declared, as she
+broke off one of the blossoms of the great cluster of deep red roses by
+her side, and gazed downward over her shoulder at the far-flung carpet
+of lights. "One sees little bits of America in every country of the
+world, but never this."
+
+Fischer, unusually grave and funereal-looking in his dinner clothes and
+black tie, followed her gesture with thoughtful eyes. Everything that
+was ugly in the stretching arms of the city seemed softened, shrouded
+and bejewelled. Even the sounds, the rattle and roar of the overhead
+railways, the clanging of the electric car bells, the shrieking of the
+sirens upon the river, seemed somehow to have lost their harsh note, to
+have become the human cry of the great live city, awaking and
+stretching itself for the night.
+
+"I agree with you," he said. "You dine at the Ritz-Carlton and you
+might be in Paris. You dine here, and one knows that you are in
+America."
+
+"Yet even here we have become increasingly luxurious," Pamela remarked,
+looking around. "The glass and linen upon the tables are quite French;
+those shaded lights are exquisite. That little band, too, was playing
+at the Ritz three years ago. I am sure that the maitre d'hotel who
+brought us to our table was once at the Cafe de Paris."
+
+"Money would draw all those things from Europe even to the Sahara,"
+Fischer observed, "so long as there were plenty of it. But millions
+could not buy our dining table in the clouds."
+
+"A little effort of the imagination, fortunately," Pamela laughed,
+looking upwards. "There are stars, but no clouds."
+
+"I guess one of them is going to slip down to the next table before
+long," Van Teyl observed, with a little movement of his head.
+
+They all three turned around and looked at the wonderful bank of pink
+roses within a few feet of them.
+
+"One of the opera women, I daresay," the young man continued. "They are
+rather fond of this place."
+
+Pamela leaned forward. Fischer was watching the streets below; Only a
+short distance away was a huge newspaper building, flaring with lights.
+The pavements fringing it were thronged with a little stationary crowd.
+A row of motor-bicycles was in waiting. A night edition of the paper
+was almost due.
+
+"Mr. Fischer," she asked, "what about that news?"
+
+He withdrew his eyes from the street. Almost unconsciously he
+straightened himself a little in his place. There was pride in his
+tone. Behind his spectacles his eyes flashed.
+
+"I would have told it you before," he said, "but you would not have
+believed it. Soon--in a very few moments--the news will be known. You
+will see it break away in waves from that building down there, so I
+will bear with your incredulity. The German and British fleets have
+met, and the victory has remained with us."
+
+"With us?" Pamela repeated.
+
+"With Germany," Fischer corrected himself hastily.
+
+"Is this true?" James Van Teyl almost shouted. "Fischer, are you sure
+of what you're saying? Why, it's incredible!"
+
+"It is true," was the proud reply. "The German Navy has been a long
+time proving itself. It has done so now. To-day every German citizen is
+the proudest creature breathing. He knew before that his armies were
+invincible. He knows now that his fleet is destined to make his country
+the mistress of the seas. England's day is over. Her ships were badly
+handled and foolishly flung into battle. She has lost many of her
+finest units. Her Navy is to-day a crippled and maimed force. The
+German fleet is out in the North Sea, waiting for an enemy who has
+disappeared."
+
+"It is inconceivable," Pamela gasped.
+
+"I do not ask you to believe my word," Fischer exclaimed. "Look!"
+
+As though the flood gates had been suddenly opened, the stream of
+patient waiters broke away from the newspaper building below. Like
+little fireflies, the motor-bicycles were tearing down the different
+thoroughfares. Boys like ants, with their burden of news sheets, were
+running in every direction. Motor-trucks had started on their furious
+race. Even the distant echoes of their cries came faintly up. Fischer
+called a messenger and sent him for a paper.
+
+"I do not know what report you will see," he said, "but from whatever
+source it comes it will confirm my story. The news is too great and
+sweeping to be contradicted or ignored."
+
+"If it's true," Van Teyl muttered, "you've made a fortune in my office
+to-day. It looks like it, too. There was something wrong with
+Anglo-French beside your selling for the last hour this afternoon. I
+couldn't get buyers to listen for a moment."
+
+"Yes, I shall have made a great deal of money," Fischer admitted,
+"money which I shall value because it comes magnificently, but I hope
+that this victory may help me to win other things."
+
+He looked fixedly at Pamela, and she moved uneasily in her chair.
+Almost unconsciously the man himself seemed somehow associated with his
+cause, to be assuming a larger and more tolerant place in her thoughts.
+Perhaps there was some measure of greatness about him after all. The
+strain of waiting for the papers became almost intolerable. At last the
+boy reappeared. The great black headlines were stretched out before
+her. She felt the envelopment of Fischer's triumph. The words were
+there in solid type, and the paper itself was one of the most reliable.
+
+GREAT NAVAL BATTLE IN THE NORTH SEA.
+
+BRITISH ADMIRALTY ADMITS SERIOUS LOSSES.
+
+"QUEEN MARY," "INDEFATIGABLE," AND MANY FINE SHIPS LOST.
+
+Pamela looked up from the sheet.
+
+"It is too wonderful," she whispered, with a note of awe in her tone.
+"I don't think that any one ever expected this. We all believed in the
+British Navy."
+
+"There is nothing," Fischer declared, "that England can do which
+Germany cannot do better."
+
+"And America best of all," Pamela said.
+
+Fischer bowed.
+
+"That is one comparison which will never now be made," he declared,
+"for from to-night Germany and America will draw nearer together. The
+bubble of British naval omnipotence is pricked."
+
+"Meanwhile," Van Teyl observed, putting his paper away, "we are
+neglecting our dinner. Nothing like a good dose of sensationalism for
+giving us an appetite."
+
+Fischer was watching his glass being filled with champagne. He seized
+it by the stem. His eyes for a moment travelled upwards.
+
+"I am an American citizen," he said, with a strange fervour in his
+tone, "but for the moment I am called back. And so I lift my glass and
+I drink--I alone, without invitation to you others--to those brave
+souls who have made of the North Sea a holy battle-ground."
+
+He drained his glass and set it down empty. Pamela watched him as
+though fascinated. For a single moment she was conscious of a queer
+sensation of personal pity for some shadowy and absent friend, of
+something almost like a lump in her throat, a strange instinct of
+antagonism towards the man by her side so enveloped in beatific
+satisfaction--then she frowned when she realised that she had been
+thinking of Lutchester, that her first impulse had been one of sympathy
+for him. The moment passed. The service of dinner was pressed more
+insistently upon them. James Van Teyl, who had been leaning back in his
+chair, talking to one of the maitres d'hotel, dismissed him with a
+little nod and entrusted them with a confidence.
+
+"Say, do you know who's coming to the next table?" he exclaimed.
+"Sonia!"
+
+They were all interested.
+
+"You won't mind?" Fischer asked diffidently.
+
+"In a restaurant, how absurd!" Pamela laughed. "Why, I'm dying to see
+her. I wonder how it is that some of these greatest singers in the
+world lead such extraordinary lives that people can never know anything
+of them."
+
+"Society is tolerant enough nowadays," her brother observed, "but Sonia
+won't give them even a decent chance to wink at her eccentricities. She
+crossed, you know, on the Prince Doronda's yacht, for fear they
+wouldn't let her land."
+
+"Here she comes," Pamela whispered.
+
+There was a moment's spellbound silence. Two maitres d'hotel were
+hurrying in front. A pathway from the lift had been cleared as though
+for a royal personage. Sonia, in white from head to foot, a dream of
+white lace and chinchilla, with a Russian crown of pearls in her glossy
+black hair, and a rope of pearls around her neck, came like a waxen
+figure, with scarlet lips and flashing eyes, towards her table. And
+behind her--Lutchester! Pamela felt her fingers gripping the
+tablecloth. Her first impulse, curiously enough, was one of wild fury
+with herself for that single instant's pity. Her face grew cold and
+hard. She felt herself sitting a little more upright. Her eyes remained
+fixed upon the newcomers.
+
+Lutchester's behaviour was admirable. His glance swept their little
+table without even a shadow of interest. He ignored with passive
+unconcern the mistake of Van Teyl's attempted greeting. He looked
+through Fischer as though he had been a ghost. He stood by Sonia's side
+while she seated herself, and listened with courteous pleasure to her
+excited admiration of the flowers and the wonderful vista. Then he took
+his own place. In his right hand he was carrying an evening paper with
+its flaming headlines.
+
+"That," Fischer pronounced, struggling to keep the joy from his tone,
+"is very British and very magnificent!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Pamela had imperfect recollections of the rest of the evening. She
+remembered that she was more than usually gay throughout dinner-time,
+but that she was the first to jump at the idea of a hurried departure
+and a visit to a cabaret. Every now and then she caught a glimpse of
+Sonia's face, saw the challenging light in her brilliant eyes, heard
+little scraps of her conversation. The Frenchwoman spoke always in her
+own language, with a rather shrill voice, which made Lutchester's
+replies sound graver and quieter than usual. More than once Pamela's
+eyes rested upon the broad lines of his back. He sat all the time like
+a rock, courteous, at times obviously amusing, but underneath it all
+she fancied that she saw some signs of the disturbance from which she
+herself was suffering. She rose to her feet at last with a little sigh
+of relief. It was an ordeal through which she had passed.
+
+Once in the lift, her brother and Fischer discussed Lutchester's
+indiscretion volubly.
+
+"I suppose," Van Teyl declared, "that there isn't a man in New York who
+wouldn't have jumped at the chance of dining alone with Sonia, but for
+an Englishman, on a night like this," he went on, glancing at the
+paper, "say, he must have some nerve!"
+
+"Or else," Fischer remarked, "a wonderful indifference. So far as I
+have studied the Anglo-Saxon temperament, I should be inclined to vote
+for the indifference. That is why I think Germany will win the war.
+Every man in that country prays for his country's success, not only in
+words, but with his soul. I have not found the same spirit in England."
+
+"The English people," Pamela interposed, "have a genius for concealment
+which amounts to stupidity."
+
+"I have a theory," Fischer said, "that to be phlegmatic after a certain
+pitch is a sign of low vitality. However, we shall see. Certainly, if
+England is to be saved from her present trouble, it will not be the
+Lutchesters of the world who will do it, nor, it seems, her Navy."
+
+They found their way to a large cabaret, where Pamela listened to an
+indifferent performance a little wearily. The news of what was termed a
+naval disaster to Great Britain was flashed upon the screen, and,
+generally speaking, the audience was stunned. Fischer behaved
+throughout the evening with tact and discretion. He made few references
+to the matter, and was careful not to indulge in any undue
+exhilaration. Once, when Van Teyl had left the box, however, to speak
+to some friends, he turned earnestly to Pamela.
+
+"Will it please you soon," he begged, "to resume our conversation of
+the other day? However you may look at it, things have changed, have
+they not? An invincible British Navy has been one of the fundamental
+principles of beliefs in American politics. Now that it is destroyed,
+the outlook is different. I could go myself to the proper quarter in
+Washington, or Von Schwerin is here to be my spokesman. I have a fancy,
+though, to work with you. You know why."
+
+She moved uneasily in her place.
+
+"I have no idea," she objected, "what it is that you have to propose.
+Besides, I am only just a woman who has been entrusted with a few
+diplomatic errands."
+
+"You are the niece of Senator Hastings," Fischer reminded her, "and
+Hastings is the man through whom I should like my proposal to go to the
+President. It is an honest offer which I have to make, and although it
+cannot pass through official channels, it is official in the highest
+sense of the word, because it comes to me from the one man who is in a
+position to make himself responsible for it."
+
+Her brother came back to the box before Pamela could reply, but, as
+they parted that night, she gave Fischer her hand.
+
+"Come and see our new quarters," she invited. "I shall be at home any
+time to-morrow afternoon."
+
+It was one of the moments of Fischer's life. He bowed low over her
+fingers.
+
+"I accept, with great pleasure," he murmured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+Sonia had the air of one steeped in an almost ecstatic content. On her
+return from the roof garden she had exchanged her wonderful gown for a
+white silk negligee, and her headdress of pearls for a quaint little
+cap. She was stretched upon a sofa drawn before the wide-flung French
+windows of her little sitting-room at the Ritz-Carlton, a salon
+decorated in pink and white, and filled almost to overflowing with the
+roses which she loved. By her side, in an easy chair which she had
+pressed him to draw up to her couch, sat Lutchester.
+
+"This," she murmured, "is one of the evenings which I adore. I have no
+work, no engagements--just one friend with whom to talk. My fine
+clothes have done. I am myself," she added, stretching out her arms. "I
+have my cigarettes, my iced sherbet, and the lights and murmur of the
+city there below to soothe me. And you to talk with me, my friend. What
+are you thinking of me--that I am a little animal who loves comfort too
+much, eh?"
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"We all love comfort," he replied. "Some of us are franker than others
+about it."
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"Comfort! It is my own word, but what a word! It is luxury I
+worship--luxury--and a friend. Is that, perhaps, another
+word too slight, eh?"
+
+He met the provocative gleam of her eyes with a smile of amusement.
+
+"You are just the same child, Sonia," he remarked. "Neither climate nor
+country, nor the few passing years, can change you."
+
+"It is you who have grown older and sterner," she pouted. "It is you who
+have lost the gift of living to-day as though to-morrow were not. There
+was a time, was there not, John, when you did not care to sit always so
+far away?"
+
+She laid her hand--ringless, over-manicured, but delicately white----
+upon his. He smoothed it gently.
+
+"You see, Sonia," he sighed, "troubles have come that harden the hearts
+even of the gayest of us."
+
+She frowned.
+
+"You are not going to remind me--" she began.
+
+"If I reminded you of anything, Sonia," he interrupted, "I would remind
+you that you are a Frenchwoman."
+
+She stretched out her hand restlessly and took one of the Russian
+cigarettes from a bowl by her side.
+
+"You are not, by any chance, going to talk seriously, dear John?"
+
+"I am," he assured her, "very seriously."
+
+"Oh, la, la!" she laughed. "You, my dear, gay companion, you who have
+shaken the bells all your life, you are going to talk seriously! And
+to-night, when we meet again after so long. Ah, well, why should I be
+surprised?" she went on, with a pout.
+
+"You have changed. When one looks into your face, one sees the
+difference. But to me, of all people in the world! Why talk seriously
+to me! I am just Sonia, the gipsy nightingale. I know nothing of
+serious things."
+
+"You carry one very serious secret in your heart," he told her gravely,
+"one little pain which must sometimes stab you. You are a Frenchwoman,
+and yet--"
+
+Lutchester paused for a moment. Sonia, too, seemed suddenly to have
+awakened into a state of tense and vivid emotion. The cigarette burned
+away between her fingers. Her great eyes were fixed upon Lutchester.
+There was something almost like fear in their questioning depths.
+
+"Finish! Finish!" she insisted. "Continue!"
+
+"And yet," he went on, "your very dear friend, the friend for whose
+sake you are here in America, is your country's enemy."
+
+She raised herself a little upon the couch.
+
+"That is not true," she declared furiously. "Maurice loves France. His
+heart aches for the misery that has come upon her. It is your country
+only which he hates. If France had but possessed the courage to stand
+by herself, to resist when England forced her friendship upon her, none
+of this tragedy would ever have happened. Maurice has told me so
+himself. France could have peace today, peace at her own price."
+
+"There is no peace which would leave France with a soul, save the peace
+which follows victory," Lutchester replied sternly.
+
+She crushed her cigarette nervously in her fingers, threw it away, and
+lit another.
+
+"I will not talk of these things with you," she cried. "It was not for
+this that you sought me out, eh? Tell me at once? Were these the
+thoughts you had in your mind when you sent your little note?--when you
+chose to show yourself once more in my life?"
+
+For the first time of his own accord, he drew his chair a little nearer
+to hers. He took her hand. She gave him both unresistingly.
+
+"Listen, dear Sonia," he said, "it is true that I am a changed man. I
+am older than when we met last, and there are the other things. You
+remember the Chateau d'Albert?"
+
+"Of course!" she murmured. "And the young Duc d'Albert's wonderful
+house party. We all motored there from Paris. You and I were together!
+You have forgotten that, eh?"
+
+"I lay in that orchard for two days," he went on grimly, "with a hole
+in my side and one leg pretty nearly done for. I saw things I can never
+forget, in those days, Sonia. D'Albert himself was killed. It was in
+that first mad rush. Of the Chateau there remains but four blackened
+walls."
+
+"_Pauvre enfant_!" she murmured. "But you are well and strong again
+now, is it not so? You will not fight again, eh? You were never a
+soldier, dear friend."
+
+"Just now," he confided, "I have other work to do. It is that other
+work which has brought me to America."
+
+She drew him a little closer to her. Her eyes questioned him.
+
+"There is, perhaps, now," she asked, "a woman in your life?"
+
+"There is," he admitted.
+
+She made a grimace.
+
+"But how clumsy to tell me, even though I asked," she exclaimed. "What
+is she like? ... But no, I do not wish to hear of her! If she is all
+the world to you, why did you send me that little note? Why are you
+here?"
+
+"Because we were once dear friends, Sonia," he said, "because I wish to
+save you from great trouble."
+
+She shrank from him a little fearfully.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Sonia," he continued, with a note of sternness in his tone, "during
+the last two years you have gone back and forth between New York and
+Paris, six times. I do not think that you can make that journey again."
+
+She was standing now, with one hand gripping the edge of the table.
+
+"John! ... John! ... What do you mean?" she demanded, and this time her
+own voice was hard.
+
+"I mean," he said, "that when you leave here for Paris you will be
+watched day and night. The moment you set foot upon French soil you
+will be arrested and searched. If anything is found upon you, such as a
+message from your friend in Washington--well, you know what it would
+mean. Can't you see, you foolish child, the risk you have been running?
+Would you care to be branded as a spy?--you, a daughter of France?"
+
+She struck at him. Her lace sleeves had fallen back, and her white arm,
+with its little clenched fist, flashed through the twilight, aimlessly
+yet passionately.
+
+"You dare to call me a spy! You, John?" she shrieked. "But it is
+horrible."
+
+"It is the work of a spy," he told her gravely, "to bring a letter from
+any person in a friendly capital and deliver it to an enemy. That is
+what you have done, Sonia, many times since the beginning of the war,
+so far without detection. It is because you are Sonia that I have come
+to save you from doing it again."
+
+She groped her way back to the couch. She threw herself upon it with
+her back towards him, her head buried in her hands.
+
+"The letters are only between friends," she faltered. "They have
+nothing to do with the war."
+
+"You may have believed that," Lutchester replied gently, "but it is not
+true. You have been made the bearer of confidential communications from
+the Austrian Embassy here to certain people in Paris whom we will not
+name. I have pledged my word, Sonia, that this shall cease."
+
+She sprang to her feet. All the feline joy of her languorous ease
+seemed to have departed. She was quivering and nervous. She stood over
+her writing-table.
+
+"A telegraph blank!" she exclaimed. "Quick! I will not see Maurice
+again. Oh, how I have suffered! This shall end it. See, I have written
+'Good-by!' He will understand. If he comes, I will not see him. Ring
+the bell quickly. There--it is finished!"
+
+A page-boy appeared, and she handed him the telegram. Then she turned a
+little pathetically to Lutchester.
+
+"Maurice was foolish--very often foolish," she went on unsteadily, "but
+he has loved me, and a woman loves love so much. Now I shall be lonely.
+And yet, there is a great weight gone from my mind. Always I wondered
+about those letters. You will be my friend, John? You will not leave me
+all alone?"
+
+He patted her hand.
+
+"Dear Sonia," he whispered, "solitude is not the worst thing one has to
+bear, these days. Try and remember, won't you, that all the men who
+might have loved you are fighting for your country, one way or
+another."
+
+"It is all so sad," she faltered, "and you--you are so stern and
+changed."
+
+"It is with me only as it is with the whole world," he told her.
+"To-night, though, you have relieved me of one anxiety."
+
+Her eyes once more were for a moment frightened.
+
+"There was danger for poor little me?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"It is past," he assured her.
+
+"And it is you who have saved me," she murmured. "Ah, Mr. John," she
+added, as she walked with him to the door, "if ever there comes to me a
+lover, not for the days only but _pour la vie,_ I hope that he may be
+an Englishman like you, whom all the world trusts."
+
+He laughed and raised her fingers to his lips.
+
+"Over-faithful, you called us once," he reminded her.
+
+"But that was when I was a child," she said, "and in days like these we
+are children no longer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Lutchester left Sonia and the Ritz-Carlton a few minutes before
+midnight, to find a great yellow moon overhead, which seemed to have
+risen somewhere at the back of Central Park. The broad thoroughfare up
+which he turned seemed to have developed a new and unfamiliar beauty.
+The electric lamps shone with a pale and almost unnatural glow. The
+flashing lights of the automobiles passing up and down were almost
+whimsically unnecessary. Lutchester walked slowly up Fifth Avenue in
+the direction of his hotel.
+
+Something--the beauty of the night, perhaps, or some faint aftermath of
+sentimentality born of Sonia's emotion--tempted him during those few
+moments to relax. He threw aside his mask and breathed the freer for
+it. Once more he was a human being, treading the streets of a real
+city, his feet very much upon the earth, his heart full of the simplest
+things. All the scheming of the last few days was forgotten, the great
+issues, the fine yet devious way to be steered amidst the rocks which
+beset him; even the depression of the calamitous news from the North
+Sea passed away. He was a very simple human being, and he was in love.
+It was all so unpractical, so illusionary, and yet so real. Events,
+actual happenings--he thrust all thoughts of these away from his mind.
+What she might be thinking of him at the moment he ignored. He was
+content to let his thoughts rest upon her, to walk through the moonlit
+street, his brain and heart revelling in that subtle facility of the
+imagination which brought her so easily to his presence. It was such a
+vividly real Pamela, too, who spoke and walked and moved by his side.
+His memory failed him nowhere, followed faithfully the kaleidoscopic
+changes in her face and tone, showed him even that long, grateful,
+searching glance when their eyes had met in Von Teyl's sitting-room.
+There had been times when she had shown clearly enough that she was
+anxious to understand, anxious to believe in him. He clung to the
+memory of these; pushed into the background that faint impression he
+had had of her at the roof-garden, serene and proud, yet with a faint
+look of something like pain in her startled eyes.
+
+A large limousine passed him slowly, crawling up Fifth Avenue.
+Lutchester, with all his gifts of observation dormant, took no notice
+of its occupant, who leaned forward, raised the speaking-tube to his
+lips, and talked for a moment to his chauffeur. The car glided round a
+side street and came to a standstill against the curb. Its solitary
+passenger stepped quietly out and entered a restaurant. The chauffeur
+backed the car a little, slipped from his place, and followed
+Lutchester.
+
+By chance the little throng of people here became thicker for a few
+moments and then ceased. Lutchester drew a little sigh of relief as he
+saw before him almost an empty pavement. Then, just as he was relapsing
+once more into thought, some part of his subconscious instinct suddenly
+leaped into warning life. Without any actual perception of what it
+might mean, he felt the thrill of imminent danger, connected it with
+that soft footfall behind him, and swung round in time to seize a
+deadly uplifted hand which seemed to end in a shimmer of dull steel.
+His assailant flung himself upon Lutchester with the lithe ferocity of
+a cat, clinging to his body, twisting and turning his arm to wrest it
+free. It was a matter of seconds only before his intended victim, with
+a fierce backward twist, broke the man's wrist and, wrenching himself
+free from the knees which clung around him, flung him forcibly against
+the railings which bordered the pavement. Lutchester paused for a
+moment to recover his breath and looked around. A man from the other
+side of the street was running towards them, but no one else seemed to
+have noticed the struggle which had begun and finished in less than
+thirty seconds. The man, who was half-way across the thoroughfare,
+suddenly stopped short. He shouted a warning to Lutchester, who swung
+around. His late assailant, who had been lying motionless, had raised
+himself slightly, with a revolver clenched in his left hand.
+Lutchester's spring on one side saved his life, for the bullet passed
+so close to his cheek that he felt the rush and heat of the air. The
+man in the center of the road was busy shouting an alarm vociferously,
+and other people on both sides of the thoroughfare were running up.
+Lutchester's eyes now never left the dark, doubled-up figure upon the
+pavement. His whole body was tense. He was prepared at the slightest
+movement to spring in upon his would-be murderer. The man's eyes seemed
+to be burning in his white face. He called out to Lutchester hoarsely.
+
+"Don't move or I shall shoot!"
+
+He looked up and down the street. One of the nearest of the hastening
+figures was a policeman. He turned the revolver against his own temple
+and pulled the trigger....
+
+Lutchester and a policeman walked slowly back along Fifth Avenue.
+Behind them, a little crowd was still gathered around the spot from
+which the body of the dead man had already been removed in an
+ambulance.
+
+"I really remember nothing," Lutchester told his companion, "until I
+heard the footsteps behind me, and, turning round, saw the knife. This
+is simply an impression of mine--that he might have descended from the
+car which passed me and stopped just round the corner of that street."
+
+"He's a chauffeur, right enough," the inspector remarked. "It don't
+seem to have been a chance job, either. Looks as though he meant doing
+you in. Got any enemies?"
+
+"None that I know of," Lutchester answered cautiously. "Why, the car's
+there still," he added, as they reached the corner.
+
+"And no chauffeur," the other muttered.
+
+The officer searched the car and drew out a license from the flap
+pocket. The commissionaire from the restaurant approached them.
+
+"Say, what are you doing with that car?" he demanded.
+
+"Better fetch the gentleman to whom it belongs," the inspector
+directed.
+
+"What's up, anyway?" the man persisted.
+
+"You do as you're told," was the sharp reply.
+
+The commissionaire disappeared. The officer studied the license which
+he had just opened.
+
+"What's the name?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+The man hesitated for a moment, then passed it over.
+
+"Oscar H. Fischer," he said. "Happen to know the name?"
+
+Lutchester's face was immovable. He passed the license back again. They
+both turned round. Mr. Fischer had issued from the restaurant.
+
+"What's wrong?" he asked hastily. "The commissionaire says you want me,
+Mr. Officer?"
+
+The inspector produced his pocketbook.
+
+"Just want to ask you a few questions about your chauffeur, sir."
+
+Fischer glanced at the driver's seat of the car, as though aware of the
+man's disappearance for the first time.
+
+"What's become of the fellow?" he inquired.
+
+"Shot himself," the inspector replied, "after a deliberate attempt to
+murder this gentleman."
+
+Mr. Fischer's composure was admirable. There was a touch of gravity
+mingled with his bewilderment. Nevertheless, he avoided meeting
+Lutchester's eyes.
+
+"You horrify me!" he exclaimed. "Why, the fellow's only been driving
+for me for a few hours."
+
+"That so?" the officer remarked, with a grunt. "Get any references with
+him?"
+
+"As a matter of fact, I did not," Fischer admitted frankly. "I
+discharged my chauffeur yesterday, at a moment's notice, and this man
+happened to call just as I was wanting the car out this afternoon. He
+promised to bring me references to-morrow from Mr. Gould and others. I
+engaged him on that understanding. He told me that his name was Kay--
+Robert Kay. That is all that I know about him, except that he was an
+excellent driver. I am exceedingly sorry Mr. Lutchester," he went on,
+turning towards him, "that this should have happened."
+
+"So you two know one another, eh?" the officer observed.
+
+"Oh, yes, we know one another!" Lutchester admitted drily.
+
+"I shall have to ask you both for your names and addresses," the
+official continued. "I think I won't ask you any more questions at
+present. Seems to me headquarters had better take this on."
+
+"I shall be quite at your service," Lutchester promised.
+
+The man made a few more notes, saluted, and took his leave. Fischer and
+Lutchester remained for a moment upon the pavement.
+
+"It is a dangerous custom," Lutchester remarked, "to take a servant
+without a reference."
+
+"It will be a warning to me for the remainder of my life," Fischer
+declared.
+
+"I, too, have learnt something," Lutchester concluded, as he turned
+away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Fischer, as he waited for Pamela the following afternoon in the
+sitting-room of her flat on Fifty-eighth Street, felt that although the
+practical future of his life might be decided in other places, it was
+here that its real climax would be reached. Pamela herself was to
+pronounce sentence upon him. He was feeling scarcely at his best. An
+examination in the courthouse, which he had imagined would last only a
+few minutes, had been protracted throughout the afternoon. The district
+attorney had asked him a great many questions, some rather awkward
+ones, and the inquiry itself had been almost grudgingly adjourned for a
+few hours. And here, in Pamela's sitting-room, the first things which
+caught his eye were the headlines of one of the afternoon papers:
+
+WESTERN MILLIONAIRE ENGAGES
+THE GIRL HESTE'S MURDERER
+AS CHAUFFEUR!
+
+ATTEMPTED MURDER AND SUICIDE
+IN FIFTH AVENUE
+LAST NIGHT.
+
+Fischer pushed the newspaper impatiently away, and, in the act of doing
+so, the door was opened and Pamela entered. She came towards him with
+outstretched hand.
+
+"I see you are looking at the account of your misdeeds," she said, as
+she seated herself behind a tea tray. "Will you tell me why a cautious
+man like you engages, without reference, a chauffeur who turns out to
+be a murderer?"
+
+Fischer frowned irritably.
+
+"For four hours," he complained, "several lawyers and a most
+inquisitive police captain have been asking me the same question in a
+hundred different ways. I engaged the man because I needed a chauffeur
+badly. He was to have brought his references this morning. I was only
+trusting him for a matter of a few hours."
+
+"And during those few hours," she observed, "he seems to have developed
+a violent antipathy to Mr. Lutchester."
+
+"I do not understand the affair at all," Mr. Fischer declared, "and, if
+I may say so, I am a little weary of it. I came here to discuss another
+matter altogether."
+
+She leaned back in her place.
+
+"What have you come to discuss, Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"That depends so much upon you," he replied. "If you give me any
+encouragement, I can put before you a great proposition. If your
+prejudices, however, remain as I think they always have been, on the
+side of England, why then I can do nothing."
+
+"If I counted for anything," Pamela said, "I mean to say if it mattered
+to any one what my attitude was, I would start by admitting that my
+sympathies are somewhat on the side of the Allies. On the other hand,
+my sympathies amount to nothing at all compared with my interest in the
+welfare of the United States. I am perfectly selfish in that respect."
+
+"Then you have an open mind to hear what I have to say," Fischer
+remarked. "I am glad of it. You encourage me to proceed."
+
+"That is all very well," Pamela said, stirring her tea, "but I cannot
+help asking once more why you come to me at all? What have I to do with
+any proposition you may have to make?"
+
+"Just this," he explained. "I have a serious and authentic proposition
+to make to the American Government. I cannot make it officially--
+although it comes from the highest of all sources--for the most obvious
+reasons. It may seem better worth listening to to-day, perhaps, than a
+week ago, so far as you are concerned. That is because you believed in
+British invincibility upon the sea. I never did."
+
+"Go on, please," Pamela begged. "I am still waiting to realise my
+position in all this."
+
+"I should like," Fischer declared, "my proposition to reach the
+President through Senator Hastings, and Senator Hastings is your
+uncle."
+
+"I see," Pamela murmured.
+
+"My offer itself is a very simple one," Fischer continued. "Your secret
+service is so bad that you probably know nothing of what is happening.
+Ours, on the other hand, is still marvellously good, and what I am
+going to tell you is surely the truth. Japan is accumulating great
+wealth. She is saving her ships and men for one purpose, and one purpose
+only. Europe could not bribe her highly enough to take a more active part
+in this war. Her price was one which could not be paid. She demanded a
+free hand with the United States."
+
+"This," Pamela admitted, "is quite interesting, but it is entirely in
+the realms of conjecture, is it not?"
+
+"Not wholly," Fischer insisted. "At the proper time I should be
+prepared to bring you evidence that tentative proposals were made by
+Japan to both England and France, asking what would be their attitude,
+should she provide them with half a million men and undertake
+transport, if at the conclusion of the war she desired a settlement
+with the United States. The answer from France and England was the
+same--that they could not countenance an inimical attitude towards the
+States."
+
+"You are bound to admit, then," Pamela remarked, "that England played
+the game here."
+
+"The bribe was not big enough," Fischer replied drily. "England would
+sell her soul, but not for a mess of pottage. To proceed, however,
+Japan has practically kept out of the war. She is enjoying a prosperity
+never known before, and for every million pounds' worth of munitions
+she exports to Russia, she puts calmly on one side twenty-five per
+cent, to accumulate for her own use. At the conclusion of the war she
+will be in a position she has never occupied before, and while the rest
+of the world is still gasping, she will proceed to carry out what has
+been the dream of her life--the invasion of your Western States."
+
+"I admit that this is plausible," Pamela confessed, "but you are only
+pointing out a very obvious danger, for which I imagine that we are
+already fairly well prepared."
+
+"Believe me," Fischer said earnestly, "you are not. It is this fact
+which makes the whole situation so vital to you. Later on in our
+negotiations, I will show you proof of your danger. Meanwhile, let me
+proceed to the offer which I am empowered to make, which comes direct
+from the one person in Germany whose word is unshakable."
+
+Pamela changed her position a little, as though to escape from the
+sunlight which was finding its way underneath the broad blinds. Her
+eyes were fixed upon her visitor. She listened intently to every word
+he had to say. Despite some vague feeling of mistrust, which she
+acknowledged to herself might well have been prejudiced, she found the
+situation interesting, even stimulating. Her few excursions into the
+world of high politics had never brought her into such a position as
+this. She felt both flattered and interested--attracted, too, in some
+nameless way, by the man's personality, his persistence, his daring,
+his whole-heartedness. The situation was instinct with interest to her.
+
+"But why make it to me?" she murmured.
+
+"You are to be my delegate," he answered. "Take the substance of what I
+say to you, to your uncle. Try, for your country's sake, to interest
+him in it. The offer which I make shall save you a vast amount of
+sacrifice. It shall save your dislocating the industries of the country
+and sowing the seeds of a disturbing and yet inadequate militarism. I
+offer you, in short, a German alliance against Japan."
+
+"The value of that offer," Pamela remarked thoughtfully, "would depend
+rather upon the issue of the present war, wouldn't it?"
+
+Fischer's face darkened. His tone was almost irritable.
+
+"That is already preordained," he said firmly. "You see, I will be
+quite frank with you. Germany has lost her chance of sweeping and
+complete victory. The result of the war will be a return to the
+status-quo-ante. Yet, believe me, Germany will be strong enough to
+settle some of the debts she owes, and the debt to Japan is one of
+these."
+
+"Still, there is the practical question of getting men and ships over
+from Germany to America," Pamela persisted.
+
+"It is already solved," was the swift reply. "At the proper time I will
+show you and prove how it can be done. At present, not one word can
+pass my lips. It is one of the secrets on which the future of Germany
+depends."
+
+"And the price?" Pamela asked.
+
+"That America adopts our view as to the high seas traffic," Fischer
+replied. "This would mean the stopping of all supplies, munitions and
+ammunition from America to England. We offer you an alliance. We ask
+only for your real and actual neutrality for the remainder of the war.
+We offer a great and substantial advantage, a safeguard for your
+country's future, in return for what? Simply that America will pursue
+the course of honour and integrity to all nations."
+
+"America," Pamela declared, "has never failed in this."
+
+Fischer shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"There is more than one point of view," he reminded her. "Will you take
+my message with you to Washington to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," Pamela promised, "I will do that. The rest, of course, remains
+with others. I do not myself go so far, even," she added, "as to
+declare myself in sympathy with you."
+
+"And yet," he insisted, with swift violence, "it is your sympathy which
+I desire more than anything in the world--your sympathy, your help,
+your companionship; a little--a very little at first--of your love."
+
+"I am afraid that I am not a very satisfactory person from that point
+of view," Pamela confessed. "I have a great sympathy with every man who
+is really out for the great things, but so far as you are concerned,
+Mr. Fischer, or any one else," she went on, after a moment's
+hesitation, "I have no personal feeling."
+
+"That shall come," he declared.
+
+"Then please wait a little time before you talk to me again like this,"
+she said, rising and holding out her hand. "At present there is no sign
+of it."
+
+"There is so much that I could offer you," he pleaded, gripping the
+hand which she had given him in farewell, "so much that I could do for
+your country. Believe me, I am not talking idly."
+
+"I do believe that," she admitted. "You are a very clever man, Mr.
+Fischer, and I think that you represent all that you claim. Perhaps, if
+we really do negotiate--"
+
+"But you must!" he interrupted impatiently. "You must listen to me for
+every reason--politically for your country's sake, personally because I
+shall offer you and give you happiness and a position you could never
+find elsewhere."
+
+For a moment her eyes seemed to be looking through him, as though some
+vision of things outside the room were troubling her. Her finger had
+already touched the bell and a servant was standing upon the threshold.
+
+"We shall meet in Washington," Mr. Fischer concluded, with an air of a
+prophet, as he took his leave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+It was within half an hour of closing time that same afternoon when
+Lutchester walked into James Van Teyl's office. The young man greeted
+him with some surprise.
+
+"Will you do some business for me?" Lutchester asked, without any
+preliminaries.
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"How many Anglo-French will you buy for me? I can obtain credit by
+cable to-morrow through any bank for twenty or thirty thousand pounds."
+
+"You want to buy Anglo-French?" Van Teyl repeated softly.
+
+His visitor nodded.
+
+"Any news?"
+
+Lutchester hesitated, and Van Teyl continued with an apologetic
+gesture.
+
+"I beg your pardon. That's not my job, anyway, to ask questions. I'll
+buy you twenty-five thousand, if you like. Guess they can't drop much
+lower."
+
+Lutchester sat down.
+
+"Thank you," he said, "I will wait."
+
+A little ripple of excitement went through the office as Van Teyl
+started his negotiations. It seemed to Lutchester that several
+telephones and half a dozen perspiring young men were called into his
+service. In the end Van Teyl made out a note and handed it to him.
+
+"I could have done better for you yesterday," he observed. "The market
+is strengthening all the time. There are probably some rumours."
+
+A boy went by along the pavement outside waving a handful of papers.
+His cry floated in through the open window:
+
+REPORTED LOSS OF MANY MORE GERMAN
+BATTLESHIPS.
+BRITISH CLAIM VICTORY.
+
+Van Teyl grinned.
+
+"You got here just in time," he murmured, "but I suppose you knew all
+about this."
+
+"I have known since three o'clock," Lutchester replied, "that all the
+reports of a German victory were false. You will find, when the truth
+is known, that the German losses were greater than the British."
+
+"Then if that's so," Van Teyl remarked, "I've got one client who'll
+lose a hatful which you ought to make. Coming up town?"
+
+"I should like, if I may?" Lutchester said, "to be permitted to pay my
+respects to your sister."
+
+"Why, that's fine!" Van Teyl exclaimed unconvincingly. "We'll take the
+subway up."
+
+They left the office and plunged into the indescribable horrors of
+their journey. When they stepped out into the sunlit street in another
+atmosphere, Van Teyl laid his hand upon his companion's arm in friendly
+fashion.
+
+"Say, Lutchester," he began, "I don't know that you are going to find
+Pamela exactly all that she might be in the way of amiability and so
+on. I know these things are done on the other side, but here it's
+considered trying your friends pretty high to take a lady of Sonia's
+reputation where you are likely to meet your friends. No offence, eh?"
+
+"Certainly not," Lutchester replied. "I was sorry, of course, to see
+you last night. On the other hand, Sonia is an old friend, and my
+dinner with her had an object. I think I could explain it to your
+sister."
+
+"I don't know that I should try," Van Teyl advised. "For all her
+cosmopolitanism, Pamela has some quaint ideas. However, I thought I'd
+warn you, in case she's a bit awkward."
+
+Pamela, however, had no idea of being awkward. She welcomed Lutchester
+with a very sweet smile, and gave him the tips of her fingers.
+
+"I was wondering whether we should see you again before we went," she
+said. "We are leaving for Washington to-morrow."
+
+"By the three o'clock train, I hope?" he ventured.
+
+She raised her eyebrows.
+
+"Why, are you going, too?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"I should have thought most of the munition works," she observed, "were
+further north."
+
+"They are," he acknowledged, "but I have business in Washington. By the
+bye, will you both come out and dine with me to-night?"
+
+Van Teyl glanced at his sister. She shook her head.
+
+"I am so sorry," she said, "but we are engaged. Perhaps we shall see
+something of you in Washington."
+
+"I have no doubt you will," Lutchester replied "All the same," he
+added, "it would give me very great pleasure to entertain you at dinner
+this evening."
+
+"Why particularly this evening?" she asked.
+
+He looked at her with a queer directness, and Pamela felt certain very
+excellent resolutions crumbling. She suffered her brother to leave the
+room without a word.
+
+"Because," he explained, "I think you will find a different atmosphere
+everywhere. There will be news in the evening papers."
+
+"News?" she repeated eagerly. "You know I am always interested in
+that."
+
+"The reports of a German naval victory were not only exaggerated,"
+Lutchester said calmly; "they were untrue. Our own official
+announcement was clumsy and tactless, but you will find it amplified
+and explained to-night."
+
+Pamela listened with an interest which bordered upon excitement.
+
+"You are sure?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Absolutely," he replied. "My notification is official."
+
+"So you think if we dined with you, the atmosphere to-night would be
+different?" she observed, with a sudden attempt at the recondite.
+
+Lutchester looked into her eyes without flinching. Pamela, to her
+annoyance, was worsted in the momentary duel.
+
+"We cannot always choose our atmosphere," he reminded her.
+
+"Mademoiselle Sonia is perhaps connected with the regulation of the
+munition supplies from America?"
+
+"Mademoiselle Sonia," Lutchester asserted, "is an old friend of mine.
+Apart from that, it was my business to talk to her."
+
+"Your business?"
+
+Lutchester assented with perfect gravity.
+
+"Within a day or two," he said, "now, if you made a point of it, I
+could explain a great deal."
+
+Pamela threw herself into a chair almost irritably.
+
+"You have the cult of being mysterious, Mr. Lutchester," she declared.
+"To be quite frank with you, you seem to be the queerest mixture of any
+man I ever knew."
+
+"It is the fault of circumstances," he regretted, "if I am sometimes
+compelled to present myself to you in an unfavourable light. Those
+circumstances are passing. You will soon begin to value me at my true
+worth."
+
+"We had half promised," Pamela murmured, "to go out with Mr. Fischer
+this evening."
+
+"The more reason for my intervention," Lutchester observed. "Fischer is
+not a fit person for you to associate with."
+
+She laughed curiously.
+
+"People who saw you at the roof-garden last night might say that you
+were scarcely a judge," Pamela retorted.
+
+"People who did not know the circumstances might have considered me
+guilty of an indiscretion," Lutchester admitted, "but they would have
+been entirely wrong. On the other hand, your friend Fischer is a
+would-be murderer, a liar, and is at the present moment engaged in
+intrigues which are a most immoral compound of duplicity and cunning."
+
+"I shall begin to think," Pamela murmured, "that you don't like Mr.
+Fischer!"
+
+"I detest him heartily," Lutchester confessed.
+
+"I find him singularly interesting," Pamela announced, sitting up in
+her chair.
+
+"I dare say you do," Lutchester replied. "Women are always bad judges
+of our sex. All the same, you are not going to marry him."
+
+"How do you know he wants to marry me?" Pamela demanded.
+
+"Instinct!"
+
+"And what do you mean by saying that I am not going to marry him?"
+
+"Because," Lutchester announced, "you are going to marry some one
+else."
+
+Pamela rose to her feet. There was a little spot
+of colour in her cheeks.
+
+"Am I indeed!" she exclaimed. "And whom, pray?"
+
+"That I will tell you at Washington," Lutchester promised.
+
+"You know his name, then?"
+
+"I know him intimately," was the cool reply. "What about our dinner
+to-night?"
+
+"We are going to dine with Mr. Fischer," Pamela decided.
+
+"I really don't think so," Lutchester objected. "For one thing, Mr.
+Fischer will probably have to attend the police court again later on."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"For having hired a famous murderer to try and get rid of me."
+Lutchester explained suavely.
+
+"Do you really believe that?" Pamela scoffed. "Why should he want to
+get rid of you? What harm can you do him?"
+
+"I am trying to find out," Lutchester replied grimly. "Still, since you
+ask the question, the pocketbook which is on its way to Germany, and
+which I picked up when Nikasti was taken ill--"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know about that!" Pamela interrupted. "That is the one
+thing that always sets me thinking about you. What did you do it for?
+How did you know what it meant to me?"
+
+"Divination, I imagine," Lutchester answered, "or perhaps I was
+thinking what it might mean to Mr. Fischer."
+
+She looked at him and her face was a study in mixed expressions. Her
+forehead was a little knitted, her eyes almost strained in their desire
+to read him; her lips were petulant.
+
+"Dear me, what a puzzle you are!" she exclaimed. "All the same, I am
+going to wait for Mr. Fischer. It doesn't matter whether one dines or
+sups. I suppose he will get away from the police court sometime or
+other."
+
+"But anyway," he protested, "you've heard all that Mr. Fischer has to
+say. Now I, on the other hand, haven't shown you my hand yet."
+
+"Heard all that Mr. Fischer has to say?" she repeated.
+
+"Certainly! Wasn't he here for several hours with you this afternoon?
+Didn't he promise you an alliance with Germany against Japan, if you
+could persuade certain people at Washington to change their tone and
+attitude towards the export of munitions?"
+
+"This," she declared, trying to keep a certain agitation from her tone,
+"is mere bluff."
+
+Lutchester was suddenly very serious indeed.
+
+"Listen," he said, "I can prove to you, if you will, that it is not
+bluff. I can prove to you that I really know something of what I am
+talking about."
+
+"There is nothing I should like better," she declared.
+
+"To begin with then," Lutchester said, "the pocketbook which Nikasti is
+supposed to have stolen from your room, the pocketbook of young Sandy
+Graham, which Mr. Fischer has sent to Germany, does not contain the
+formula of the new explosive, or any other formula that amounts to
+anything."
+
+"Just how do you know that?" she demanded.
+
+"To continue," Lutchester said, playing with a little ornament upon the
+mantelpiece, "you have an appointment--within half an hour, I
+believe--with Mr. Paul Haskall, who is a specialist in explosives,
+having an official position with the American Government."
+
+She had ceased to struggle any longer with her surprise. She looked at
+him fixedly but remained silent.
+
+"It is your belief," he proceeded, "that you are going to hand over to
+him the formula of which we were speaking."
+
+"It is no belief," she replied. "It is certainty. I took it myself from
+Graham's pocket."
+
+Lutchester nodded.
+
+"Good! Have you opened it?"
+
+"I have," she declared. "It is without doubt, the formula."
+
+"On the other hand, I am here to assure you that it is not," Lutchester
+replied.
+
+Her hand was tearing at the cushion by her side. She moistened her
+lips. There was something about Lutchester hatefully convincing.
+
+"What do you mean?" she demanded. "Is this a trick. You won't get it!
+No one but Mr. Haskall will get that formula from me!"
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"It will only puzzle him when he gets it! To tell you the truth, the
+formula is rubbish."
+
+"I don't believe you," she said firmly. "If you think you are going to
+interfere with my handing it over to him, you are mistaken."
+
+"I have no wish to do anything of the sort," Lutchester assured her.
+"Make a bargain with me. Mr. Haskall will be here soon. Unfasten the
+little package you are carrying somewhere about your person, hand him
+the envelope and watch his face. If he tells you that what you have
+offered him is a coherent and possible formula for an explosive, then
+you can look upon me for ever afterwards as the poor, foolish person
+you sometimes seem to consider me. If, on the other hand, he tells you
+that it is rubbish, I shall expect you at the Ritz-Carlton at half-past
+eight."
+
+There was a ring at the bell. She rose to her feet.
+
+"I accept," she declared. "That is Mr. Haskall. And, by the bye, Mr.
+Lutchester, don't order too elaborate a dinner, for I am very much
+afraid you will have to eat it all yourself. Now, au revoir," she
+added, as the door was opened in obedience to her summons and a servant
+stood prepared to show him out. "If we don't turn up to-night, you will
+know the reason."
+
+"I am very hopeful," Lutchester replied, as he turned away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+At five-and-twenty minutes past eight that evening Lutchester, who was
+waiting in the entrance hall of the Ritz-Carlton, became just a little
+restless. At half-past, his absorption in an evening paper, over the
+top of which he looked at every newcomer, was almost farcical. At
+five-and-twenty to nine Pamela arrived. He advanced down the lounge to
+meet her. Her face was inscrutable, her smile conventional. Yet she had
+come! He looked over his shoulder towards the men's coat room.
+
+"Your brother?"
+
+"I sent Jim to his club," she said. "I want to have a confidential talk
+with you, Mr. Lutchester."
+
+"I am very flattered," he told her, with real earnestness.
+
+She vanished for a few moments in the cloakroom, and reappeared, a
+radiant vision in deep blue silk. Her hair was gathered in a coil at
+the top of her head, and surmounted with an ornament of pearls.
+
+"You are looking at my headdress," she remarked, as they walked into
+the room. "It is the style you admire, is it not?"
+
+He murmured something vague, but he knew that he was forgiven. They
+were ushered to their places by a portly maitre d'hotel, and she
+approved of his table. It was set almost in an alcove, and was
+partially hidden from the other diners.
+
+"Is this seclusion vanity or flattery?"
+
+"As a matter of fact, it is rather a popular table," he told her. "We
+have an excellent view of the room, and yet one can talk here without
+being disturbed."
+
+"To talk to you is exactly what I wish to do," she said, as they took
+their places. "We commence, if you please, with a question. Mr. Fischer
+thought that he had that formula and he hasn't. I could have sworn that
+it was in my possession--and it isn't. Where is it?"
+
+"I took it to the War Office before I left England," he told her
+simply. "They will have the first few tons of the stuff ready next
+month."
+
+"You!" she cried, "But where did you get it?"
+
+"I happened to be first, that's all," he explained. "You see, I had the
+advantage of a little inside information. I could have exposed the
+whole affair if I had thought it wise. I preferred, however, to let
+matters take their course. Young Graham deserved all he got there, and
+I made sure of being the first to go through his papers. I'm afraid I
+must confess that I left a bogus formula for you."
+
+"I had begun to suspect this," Pamela confessed. "You don't mind being
+put into the witness box, do you?" she added, as she pushed aside the
+menu with a little sigh of satisfaction. "How wonderfully you order an
+American dinner!"
+
+"I am so glad I have chosen what you like," he said, "and as to being
+in the witness box--well, I am going to place myself in the
+confessional, and that is very much the same thing, isn't it?"
+
+"To begin at the beginning, then--about that destroyer?"
+
+"My mission over here was really important," he admitted. "I couldn't
+catch the _Lapland_, so the Admiralty sent me over."
+
+"And your golf with Senator Hamblin? It wasn't altogether by accident
+you met him down at Baltusrol, was it?"
+
+"It was not," he confessed, "I had reason to suspect that certain
+proposals from Berlin were to be put forward to the President either
+through his or Senator Hastings' mediation. There were certain facts in
+connection with them, which I desired to be the first to lay before the
+authorities."
+
+She looked around the room and recognised some of her friends. For some
+reason or other she felt remarkably light-hearted.
+
+"For a poor vanquished woman," she observed, turning back to
+Lutchester, "I feel extraordinarily gay to-night. Tell me some more."
+
+He bowed.
+
+"Mademoiselle Sonia," he proceeded, "has been a friend of mine since
+she sang in the cafes of Buda Pesth. I dined with her, however, because
+it had come to my knowledge that she was behaving in a very foolish
+manner."
+
+Pamela nodded understandingly.
+
+"She was the friend of Count Maurice Ziduski, wasn't she?"
+
+"She is no longer," Lutchester replied. "She sailed for France this
+morning without seeing him. She has remembered that she is a
+Frenchwoman."
+
+"It was you who reminded her!"
+
+"Love so easily makes people forgetful," he said, "and I think that
+Sonia was very fond of Maurice Ziduski. She is a thoughtless,
+passionate woman, easily swayed through her affections, and she had no
+idea of the evil she was doing."
+
+"So that disposes of Sonia," Pamela reflected.
+
+"Sonia was only an interlude," Lutchester declared. "She really doesn't
+come into this affair at all. The one person who does come into it,
+whom you and I must speak of, is Fischer."
+
+"A most interesting man," Pamela sighed. "I really think his wife would
+have a most exciting life."
+
+"She would!" Lutchester agreed. "She'd probably be allowed to visit him
+once every fourteen days in care of a warder."
+
+"Spite!" Pamela exclaimed, with a suspicious little quiver at the
+corner of her lips.
+
+Lutchester shook his head.
+
+"Fischer is too near the end of his rope for me to feel spiteful," he
+said, "though I am quite prepared to grant that he may be capable of
+considerable mischief yet. A man who has the sublime effrontery to
+attempt to come to an agreement with two countries, each behind the
+other's back, is a little more than Machiavellian, isn't he?"
+
+"Is that true of Mr. Fischer?"
+
+"Absolutely," Lutchester assured her. "He is over here for the purpose
+of somehow or other making it known informally in Washington that
+Germany would be willing to pledge herself to an alliance with America
+against Japan, after the war, if America will alter her views as to the
+export of munitions to the Allies."
+
+"Well, that's a reasonable proposition, isn't it, from his point of
+view?" Pamela remarked. "It may not be a very agreeable one from yours,
+but it is certainly one which he has a right to make."
+
+"Entirely," Lutchester agreed, "but where he goes wrong is that his
+primary object in coming here was to meet Hie chief of the Japanese
+Secret Service, to whom he has made a proposition of precisely similar
+character."
+
+Pamela set down her glass.
+
+"You are not in earnest!"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"Nikasti?"
+
+"Precisely! He came all the way from Japan to confer with Fischer.
+Probably, if we knew the whole truth, those rooms at the Plaza Hotel,
+and the social partnership of your brother and Fischer, were arranged
+for no other reason than to provide a safe personality for Nikasti in
+this country, and a safe place for him to talk things over with
+Fischer."
+
+"Mr. Fischer was paying nearly the whole of the expenses of the Plaza
+suite," Pamela observed thoughtfully.
+
+"Naturally," Lutchester replied. "Your brother's name was a good, safe
+name to get behind. But to conclude with our friend Nikasti. He is
+supposed to leave New York next Saturday, and to carry to the Emperor
+of Japan an autograph letter from a nameless person, promising him, if
+Japan will cease the export of munitions to Russia, the aid of Germany
+in her impending campaign against America."
+
+"An autograph letter, did you say?" Pamela almost gasped.
+
+"An autograph letter," Lutchester repeated firmly. "Now don't you agree
+with me that Fischer's game is just a little too daring?"
+
+"It is preposterous!" she cried.
+
+"I have a theory," Lutchester continued, "that Fischer was never
+intended to use more than one of these letters. It was intended that he
+should study the situation here, approach one side, and, if
+unsuccessful, try the other. Fischer, however, conceived a more
+magnificent idea. He seems to be trying both at the same time. It is
+the sublime egotism of the Teutonic mind."
+
+"It is monstrous!" Pamela exclaimed indignantly.
+
+"It is almost as monstrous," Lutchester agreed, "as his daring to raise
+his eyes to you, although, so far as you are concerned, I believe that
+he is as honest as the man knows how to be."
+
+"And why," she asked, "do you credit him with so much good faith?"
+
+"Because," Lutchester replied, "if he had not been actuated by personal
+motives, he would never have sought you out as an intermediary. There
+are other sources open to him, by means of which he could make equally
+sure of reaching the President's ear. His idea was to impress you. It
+was foolish but natural."
+
+Pamela was deep in thought. There was an angry spot of colour burning
+in her cheek.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me, Mr. Lutchester," she persisted, "that this
+afternoon, say, when with every appearance of earnestness he was
+begging me to put these propositions before my uncle, he had really
+made precisely similar overtures to Japan?"
+
+"I give you my word that this is the truth," Lutchester assured her
+solemnly.
+
+She looked at him with something almost like wonder in her eyes.
+
+"But you?" she exclaimed. "How do you know this? How can you be sure of
+it?"
+
+"I have seen the autograph letter which Nikasti has in his possession,"
+he announced.
+
+"You mean that Mr. Fischer showed it to you?" she exclaimed
+incredulously.
+
+Lutchester hesitated.
+
+"There are methods," he said, "which those who fight in the dark places
+for their country are forced sometimes to make use of. I have seen the
+letter. I have half convinced those who represent Japan in this matter
+of Fischer's duplicity. With your help I am hoping wholly to do so."
+
+Pamela leaned for a moment back in her chair.
+
+"Really," she declared, "I am beginning to have the feeling that I am
+living almost too rapidly. Let us have a breathing spell. I wonder what
+all these other people are talking about."
+
+"Probably," he suggested, with a little glance around, "about
+themselves. We will follow their example. Will you marry me, please,
+Miss Van Teyl?"
+
+"We haven't even come to the ice yet," she sighed, "and you pass from
+high politics to flagrant personalities. Are you a sensationalist, Mr.
+Lutchester?"
+
+"Not in the least," he protested. "I simply asked you an extremely
+important question quite calmly."
+
+"It isn't a question that should be asked calmly," she objected.
+
+"I have immense self-control," he told her, "but if you'd like me to
+abandon it--"
+
+"For heaven's sake, no!" she interrupted. "Tell me more about Mr.
+Fischer."
+
+"You won't forget to answer my little question later on, will you?" he
+begged. "To proceed, then. I spent some little time this afternoon with
+your chief of the police here, and I fancy that the person you speak of
+is becoming a little too blatant even for a broad-minded country like
+this. He belongs to an informal company of wealthy sympathisers with
+Germany, who propose to start a campaign of destruction at all the
+factories manufacturing munitions for the Allies. They have put
+aside--I believe it is several million dollars, for purposes of
+bribery. They don't seem to realise, as my friend pointed out to me
+this afternoon, that the days for this sort of thing in New York have
+passed. Some of them will be in prison before they know where they
+are."
+
+"Exactly why did you come to America?" she asked, a little abruptly.
+
+"To meet Nikasti and to look after Fischer."
+
+"Well, you seem to have done that pretty effectually!"
+
+"Also," he went on calmly, "to keep an eye upon you."
+
+"Professionally?"
+
+"You ask me to give away too many secrets," he whispered, leaning
+towards her.
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"Tell me some more about your little adventure in Fifth Avenue?" she
+begged.
+
+He smiled grimly.
+
+"You wouldn't believe me," he reminded her, "but it really was one of
+Fischer's little jokes. It very nearly came off, too. As a matter of
+fact," he went on, "Fischer isn't really clever. He is too obstinate,
+too convinced in his own mind that things must go the way he wants them
+to, that Fate is the servant of his will. It's a sort of national
+trait, you know, very much like the way we English bury our heads in
+the sand when we hear unpleasant truths. The last thing Fischer wants
+is advertisement, and yet he goes to some of his Fourteenth Street
+friends and unearths a popular desperado to get rid of me. The fellow
+happens most unexpectedly to fail, and now Fischer has to face a good
+many awkward questions and a good deal of notoriety. No, I don't think
+Fischer is really clever."
+
+Pamela sighed.
+
+"In that case, I suppose I shall have to say 'No' to him," she decided.
+"After waiting all this time, I couldn't bear to be married to a fool."
+
+"You won't be," he assured her cheerfully.
+
+"More British arrogance," she murmured. "Now see what's going to happen
+to us!"
+
+A tall, elderly man, with smooth white hair plastered over his
+forehead, very precisely dressed, and with a gait so careful as to be
+almost mincing, was approaching their table. Pamela held out her hands.
+
+"My dear uncle!" she exclaimed. "And I thought that you and aunt never
+dined at restaurants!"
+
+Mr. Hastings stood with his fingers resting lightly upon the table. He
+glanced at Lutchester without apparent recognition.
+
+"You remember Mr. Lutchester?" Pamela murmured.
+
+Mr. Hastings' manner lacked the true American cordiality, but he
+hastened to extend his hand.
+
+"Of course!" he declared. "I was not fortunate enough, however, to see
+much of you the other evening, Mr. Lutchester. We have several mutual
+friends whom I should be glad to hear about."
+
+"I shall pay my respects to Mrs. Hastings, if I may, very shortly,"
+Lutchester promised.
+
+"Are you with friends here, uncle?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"We are the guests of Mr. Oscar Fischer," the Senator announced.
+
+Pamela raised her eyebrows.
+
+"So you know Mr. Fischer, uncle?"
+
+"Naturally," Mr. Hastings replied, with some dignity. "Oscar Fischer is
+one of the most important men in the State which I represent. He is a
+man of great wealth and industry and immense influence."
+
+Pamela made a little grimace. Her uncle noticed it and frowned.
+
+"He has just been telling us of his voyage with you, Pamela. Perhaps,
+if Mr. Lutchester can spare you," he went on, with a little bow across
+the table, "you will come and take your coffee with us. Your aunt is
+leaving for Washington, probably to-morrow, and wishes to arrange for
+you to travel with her. Mr. Lutchester may also, perhaps, give us the
+pleasure of his company for a few minutes," he added, after a slight
+but obvious pause.
+
+"Thank you," Pamela answered quickly, "I am Mr. Lutchester's guest this
+evening. If you are still here, I shall love to come and speak to aunt
+for a moment later on. If not, I will ring up to-morrow morning."
+
+The bland, almost episcopal serenity of Senator Hastings' face was
+somewhat disturbed. It was obvious that the situation displeased him.
+
+"I think, Pamela," he said, "that you had better come and speak to your
+aunt before you leave."
+
+His bow to Lutchester was the bow of a politician to an adversary. He
+made his way back in leisurely fashion to the table from which he had
+come, exchanging a few words with many acquaintances. Pamela watched
+him with a twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"I am becoming so unpopular," she murmured. "I can read in my uncle's
+tone that my aunt and he disapprove of our dining together here. And as
+for Mr. Fischer. I'm afraid he'll break off our prospective alliance."
+
+Lutchester smiled.
+
+"Prospective is the only word to use," he observed. "By the bye, are
+you particularly fond of your uncle?"
+
+"Not riotously," she admitted. "He has been kind to me once or twice,
+but he's rather a starchy old person."
+
+"In that case," Lutchester decided, "we won't interfere."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+Fischer had by no means the appearance of a discomfited man that
+evening, when some time later Pamela and Lutchester approached the
+little group of which he seemed, somehow, to have become the central
+figure. It was a small party, but, in its way, a distinguished one.
+Pamela's aunt was a member of an historic American family, and a woman
+of great social position, not only in New York but in Washington
+itself. Of the remaining guests, one was a financial magnate of
+world-wide fame, and the other, Senator Joyce, a politician of such
+eminence that his name was freely mentioned as a possible future
+president. Mrs. Hastings greeted Pamela and her escort without
+enthusiasm.
+
+"My dear child," she exclaimed, "how extraordinary to find you here!"
+
+"Is it?" Pamela observed indifferently. "You know Mr. Lutchester, don't
+you, aunt?"
+
+Mrs. Hastings remembered her late dinner guest, but her recognition was
+icy and barely polite. She turned away at once and resumed her
+conversation with Fischer. Lutchester was not introduced to either of
+the other members of the party. He laid his hand on the back of an
+empty chair and turned it round for Pamela, but she stopped him with a
+word of thanks. Something had gone from her own naturally pleasant
+tone. She held her hand higher, even, than her aunt's, as she turned a
+little insistently towards her.
+
+"So sorry, aunt," she announced, "but we are going now. Good night!"
+
+Mrs. Hastings disapproved.
+
+"We have seen nothing of you yet, Pamela," she said stiffly. "You had
+better stay with us and we will drop you on our way home."
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"I am coming with you to-morrow, you know," she reminded her aunt.
+"To-night I am Mr. Lutchester's guest and he will see me home."
+
+Mrs. Hastings drew her niece a little closer to her.
+
+"Is this part of your European manners, Pamela?" she whispered, "that
+you dine alone in a restaurant with an acquaintance? Let me tell you
+frankly that I dislike the idea most heartily. My chaperonage is always
+at your service, and any girl of your age in America would be delighted
+to avail herself of it."
+
+"It is very kind of you, aunt," Pamela replied, "but in a general way I
+finished with chaperons long ago."
+
+"Where is Jimmy?" Mrs. Hastings inquired.
+
+"He was coming with us to-night," Pamela explained, "but I asked him
+particularly to stay away. I have seen so little of Mr. Lutchester
+since he arrived, and I want to talk to him."
+
+The financial magnate awoke from a comatose inertia and suddenly
+gripped Lutchester by the hand.
+
+"Lutchester," he repeated to himself. "I thought I knew your face.
+Stayed with your uncle down at Monte Carlo once. You came there for a
+week."
+
+Lutchester acknowledged his recollection of the fact and the two men
+exchanged a few commonplace remarks. Mrs. Hastings took the opportunity
+to try and induce Pamela to converse with Fischer.
+
+"We have all been so interested to-night," she said, "in hearing what
+Mr. Fischer has to say about the situation on the other side."
+
+Pamela was primed for combat.
+
+"Has Mr. Fischer been telling you fairy tales?" she laughed.
+
+"Fairy tales?" her aunt repeated severely. "I don't understand."
+
+Fischer's steel grey eyes flashed behind his spectacles.
+
+"I'm afraid that Miss Van Teyl's prejudices," he observed bitterly,
+"are very firmly fixed."
+
+"Then she is no true American," Mrs. Hastings pronounced didactically.
+
+"Oh, I can assure you that I am not prejudiced," Pamela declared,
+"only, you see, I, too, have just arrived from the other side, and I
+have been able to use my own eyes and judgment. If there is any
+prejudice in the matter, why should it not come from Mr. Fischer? He
+has the very good excuse of his German birth."
+
+"Mr. Fischer is an American citizen," Mrs. Hastings reminded her niece,
+"and personally, I think that the American of German birth is one of
+the most loyal and long-suffering persons I know. I cannot say as much
+for the English people who are living over here. And as to fairy
+stories--"
+
+Pamela intervened, turning towards Fischer with a little laugh.
+
+"Oh, he can't even deny those! What about the great German victory in
+the North Sea, Mr. Fischer? Do you happen to have seen the latest
+telegrams?"
+
+"Our first reports were perhaps a little too glowing," Mr. Fischer
+acknowledged. "That, under the circumstances, is, I think, only
+natural. But the facts remain that the invincible English and the
+untried German fleets have met, to the advantage of the German."
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"I cannot even allow that," she objected. "The advantage, if there was
+any, rested on the other side. But I just want you to remember what we
+were told in that first wonderful outpouring of fabricated news--that
+the naval supremacy of England was gone for ever, that the freedom of
+the seas was assured, that German merchant vessels were steaming home
+from all directions! No, Mr. Fischer! Between ourselves, I think that
+your cause needs a few fairy stories, and I look upon you as one of the
+greatest experts in the world when it comes to concocting them."
+
+Fischer, who had risen to his feet half way through Pamela's speech,
+was obviously a little taken aback by her direct attack. Mrs. Hastings
+took no pains to conceal her annoyance.
+
+"For a young girl of your age, Pamela," she said sternly, "I consider
+that you express your opinions far too freely. Your attitude, too, is
+unjustifiable."
+
+"Ah, well, you see, I am a little prejudiced against Mr. Fischer,"
+Pamela laughed, turning towards him. "He happened to defeat one of my
+pet schemes."
+
+"But I am ready to further your dearest one," he reminded her, dropping
+his voice, and leading her a little on one side. "What about our
+alliance?"
+
+"You scarcely need my aid," she observed, with a shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+He remonstrated vigorously. There was a revived hopefulness in his
+tone. Perhaps, after all, here was the secret of her displeasure with
+him.
+
+"You wonder, perhaps, to see me with your uncle. I give you my word
+that it is a dinner of courtesy only. I give you my word that I have
+not opened my lips on political matters. I have been waiting for your
+answer."
+
+"I have lost faith in you," she told him calmly. "I am not even certain
+that you possess the authority you spoke of."
+
+"If that is all," he replied eagerly, "you shall see it with your own
+eyes. You are staying with your uncle and aunt in Washington, are you
+not? I shall call upon you immediately I arrive, and bring it with me."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Well, that remains a challenge, then, Mr. Fischer. And now, if you are
+quite ready," she added, turning to Lutchester.... "Good-by,
+everybody!"
+
+"Aren't your ears burning?" Pamela asked, after Lutchester had handed
+her into a taxicab and taken his place by her side. "I can absolutely
+feel them talking about us."
+
+"I seem to be most regrettably unpopular," Lutchester remarked.
+
+"Even now I am puzzled about that," Pamela confessed, "but you see my
+aunt considers herself the arbitress of what is right or wrong in
+social matters, and she is exceedingly narrow-minded. In her eyes it is
+no doubt a greater misdemeanour for me to have dined at the
+Ritz-Carlton alone with you, than if I had conspired against the
+Government."
+
+"And this, I thought, was the land of freedom for your sex!"
+
+"Ah, but my aunt is rather an exception," Pamela reminded him. "The one
+thing I cannot understand, however, is that she should have allowed
+herself to be seen dining with Mr. Oscar Fischer at the Ritz-Carlton. I
+should have thought that would have been almost as heinous to her as my
+own little slip from grace."
+
+"Is your aunt by way of being interested in politics?" Lutchester
+inquired.
+
+"Not in a general way," Pamela replied, "but she is intensely
+ambitious, and she'd give her soul if Uncle Theodore could get a
+nomination for the Presidency."
+
+"Perhaps she is taking up the German-American cause, then," Lutchester
+suggested. "It is a possible platform, at any rate."
+
+"I foresee a new party," Pamela murmured thoughtfully. "Now I come to
+think of it, Mr. Elsworthy, the fat old gentleman who knew your uncle,
+is very pro-German."
+
+He leaned towards her.
+
+"We have had enough politics," he insisted. "There is the other thing.
+Couldn't I have my answer?"
+
+She let him take her fingers. In the cool darkness through which they
+were rushing her face seemed white, her head was a little averted. He
+tried to draw her to him, but she was unyielding.
+
+"Please not," she begged. "I like you--and I'm glad I like you," she
+added, "but I don't feel certain about anything. Couldn't we be just
+friends a little longer?"
+
+"It must be as you say, but I am horribly in love with you," he
+confessed. "That may sound rather a bald way of saying so, but it's the
+truth, Pamela, dear."
+
+His clasp upon her fingers was tightened. She turned towards him. Her
+expression was serious but delightful.
+
+"Well, let me tell you this much, at least," she confided. "I have
+never before in my life been so glad to hear any one say so.... And
+here we are at home, and there's Jimmy on the doorstep. What is it,
+Jimmy," she asked, waving her hand.
+
+He came down towards her in a state of great excitement.
+
+"Say, we've had to open up the office again!" he exclaimed. "The
+telegrams are rolling in now. That so-called German naval victory was a
+fake. The Britishers came out right on top. You know you stand to net at
+least half a million, Mr. Lutchester? The worst of it is I have another
+client who's going to lose it."
+
+Pamela shook her head at Lutchester.
+
+"The possibility of increased responsibilities," he whispered. "A
+married man needs something to fall back upon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+The offices of Messrs. Neville, Brooks, and Van Teyl were the scene of
+something like pandemonium. Van Teyl himself, bathed in perspiration,
+rushed into his room for the twentieth time. He almost flung the
+newspaper man who was waiting for him through the door.
+
+"No, we don't know a darned thing," he declared. "We've no special
+information. The only reason we're up to our neck in Anglo-French is
+because we've two big clients dealing."
+
+"It's just a few personal notes about those clients we'd like to
+handle."
+
+"Oh, get out as quick as you can!" Van Teyl snapped. "This isn't a
+bucket shop or a pool room. The names of our clients concerns ourselves
+only."
+
+"What do you think Anglo-French are going to do, Mr. Van Teyl?"
+
+"I can't tell," was the prompt answer, "but I can tell what's going to
+happen if you don't clear out."
+
+The newspaper man took a hurried leave. Van Teyl seized the telephone
+receiver, only to put it down with a little shout of relief as the door
+opened and Lutchester entered.
+
+"Thank God!" he exclaimed. "Why, I've been ringing you up for an hour
+and a half."
+
+"Sorry," Lutchester replied, "I was down at the barber's the first time
+you got through, and then I had some cables to send off."
+
+"Look here," Van Teyl continued, gripping him by the shoulder, "is six
+hundred and forty thousand dollars, or thereabouts, profit enough for
+you on your Anglo-French?"
+
+"It sounds adequate," Lutchester confessed, laying his hat and cane
+carefully upon the table and drawing up an easy-chair. "How much is Mr.
+Fischer going to lose?"
+
+"God knows! If you allow me to sell at the present moment, you'll ease
+the market, and he'll lose about what you make."
+
+"And if I decide to hold my Anglo-French?"
+
+"You'll have to provide us with about a couple of million dollars," Van
+Teyl replied, "and I should think you would pretty well break Fischer
+for a time. Frankly, he's an important client, and we don't want him
+broken, even temporarily."
+
+"What do you want me to do, then?"
+
+"Give us authority to sell," Van Teyl begged. "Can't you hear them
+yapping about in the office outside? They're round me all the time like
+a pack of hounds. Honestly, if I don't sell some Anglo-French before
+lunch-time to-day, they look like wrecking the office."
+
+Lutchester knocked the end of a cigarette thoughtfully against the side
+of his chair.
+
+"All right," he decided, "I don't want you to suffer any inconvenience.
+Besides, I am going to Washington this afternoon. You can keep on
+selling as long as the market's steady. Directly it sags, hold off. If
+necessary, even buy a few more. You understand me? Don't sell a single
+block under to-day's price. Keep the market at that figure. It's an
+easy job, because next week Anglo-French will go up again."
+
+Van Teyl was moved to a rare flash of admiration.
+
+"You're a cool hand, Lutchester," he declared, "considering you're not
+a business man."
+
+"Fischer's the man who'll need to keep cool," Lutchester remarked,
+lighting his cigarette. "What about a little lunch?"
+
+The stockbroker scarcely heard him. He had struck a bell, and the
+office seemed suddenly filled with clerks. Van Teyl's words were
+incoherent--a string of strange directions, punctuated by slang which
+was, so far as Lutchester was concerned, unintelligible. The whole
+place seemed to wake into a clamour of telephone bells, shouts, the
+clanging and opening of the lift gates, and the hurried tramp of
+footsteps in the corridors outside. Lutchester rose to his feet. He was
+looking very comfortable and matter-of-fact in his grey tweed suit and
+soft felt hat.
+
+"Perhaps," he observed pleasantly, "I am out of place here. Drop me a
+line and let me know how things are going to the Hotel Capitol at
+Washington."
+
+"That's all right," Van Teyl promised. "I'll get you on the
+long-distance 'phone. I was coming myself with Pamela for a few days,
+but this little deal of yours has set things buzzing.... Say, who's
+that?"
+
+The door opened, and Fischer paused upon the threshold. Certainly, of
+all the people concerned, the two speculators themselves seemed the
+least moved by the excitement they were causing. Fischer was dressed
+with his usual spick-and-span neatness, and his appearance betrayed no
+sign of flurry or excitement. He nodded grimly to Lutchester.
+
+"My congratulations," he said. "You seem to have rigged the Press here
+to some purpose."
+
+Lutchester raised his eyebrows.
+
+"I don't even know a newspaper man in New York," he declared.
+
+The newcomer gave vent to a little gesture of derision.
+
+"Then you've some very clever friends! You'd better make the most of
+their offices. The German version of the naval battle will be confirmed
+and amplified within twenty-four hours, and then your Anglo-French will
+touch mud."
+
+"If that is your idea," Lutchester remarked suavely, "why buy now? Why
+not wait till next week? Come," he went on, "I will have a little
+flutter with you, if you like, Fischer. I will bet you five thousand
+dollars, and Van Teyl here shall hold the stakes, that a week hence
+to-day Anglo-French stand higher than they do at this moment."
+
+Fischer hesitated. Then he turned away.
+
+"I am not a sportsman, Mr. Lutchester," he said.
+
+Lutchester brushed away a little dust from his coat sleeve.
+
+"No," he murmured, "I agree with you. Good morning!"
+
+Lutchester walked out into the sun-baked streets, and with his absence
+Fischer abandoned his almost unnatural calm. He strode up and down the
+room, fuming with rage. At every fresh click of the tape machine, he
+snatched at the printed slip eagerly and threw it away with an oath. No
+one took any notice of him. Van Teyl rushed in and out, telephones
+clanged, perspiring clerks dashed in with copies of contracts to add to
+the small pile upon the desk. There came a quiet moment presently. Van
+Teyl wiped the perspiration from his forehead and drank a tumblerful of
+water.
+
+"Fischer," he asked, "what made you go into this so big? You must have
+known there was always the risk of your wireless report beating it up a
+little too tall."
+
+"It wasn't our report at all that I went by," Fischer confessed
+gloomily. "It was the English Admiralty announcement that did it. Can
+you conceive," he went on, striking the table with his fist, "any
+nation at war, with a grain of common sense or an ounce of
+self-respect, issuing a statement like that?--an apology for a defeat
+which, damn it all, never happened! Say the thing was a drawn battle,
+which is about what it really was. It didn't suit the Germans to fight
+it to a finish. They'd everything to lose and little to gain. So in
+effect they left the Britishers there and passed back behind their own
+minefield. So far as regards reports, that was victory enough for any
+one except those muddle-headed civilians at Whitehall. They deceived
+the world with that infernal bulletin, and incidentally me. It was on
+that statement I gave you my orders, not on ours."
+
+"It's a damned unfortunate business!" Van Teyl sighed. "You're only
+half way out yet, and it's cost you nearly three hundred thousand."
+
+A dull spot of purple colour burned in Fischer's cheeks. His upper lip
+was drawn in, his appearance for a moment was repulsive.
+
+"It isn't the money I mind," he muttered. "It's Lutchester."
+
+Van Teyl was discreetly silent. Fischer seemed to read his thoughts. He
+leaned across the table.
+
+"A wonderful fellow, your friend Lutchester," he sneered. "An Admirable
+Crichton of finance and diplomacy and love-making, eh? But the end
+isn't just yet. I promise you one thing, James Van Teyl. He isn't going
+to marry your sister."
+
+"I'd a damned sight sooner she married him than you!" Van Teyl blazed
+out.
+
+Fischer was taken aback. He had held for so long the upper hand with
+this young man that for the moment he had forgotten that circumstances
+were changed between them. Van Teyl rose to his feet. The bonds of the
+last few months had snapped. He spoke like a free man.
+
+"Look here, Fischer," he said, "you've had me practically in your power
+for the best part of a year, but now I'm through with you. I'm out of
+your debt, no thanks to you, and I'm going to keep out. I am working on
+your business as hard as though you were my own brother, and I'll go on
+doing it. I'll get you out of this mess as well as I can, and after
+that you can take your damned business where you please."
+
+"So that's it, is it?" Fischer scoffed. "A rich brother-in-law coming
+along, eh? ... No, don't do that," stepping quickly backwards as Van
+Teyl's fist shot out.
+
+"Then keep my sister's name out of this conversation," Van Teyl
+insisted. "If you are wise, you'll clear out altogether. They're at it
+again."
+
+Fischer, however, glanced at the clock and remained. At the next lull,
+he hung down the tape and turned to his companion.
+
+"Say, there's no use quarrelling, James," he declared. "I'm going to
+leave you to it now. Guess I said a little more than I meant to, but I
+tell you I hate that fellow Lutchester. I hate him just as though I
+were the typical German and he were the typical Britisher, and there
+was nothing but a sea of hate between us. Shake hands, Jim."
+
+Van Teyl obeyed without enthusiasm. Fischer drew a chair to the table
+and wrote out a cheque, which he passed across.
+
+"I'll drop into the bank and let them know about this," he said. "You
+can make up accounts and let me hear how the balance stands. I'll wipe
+it out by return, whatever it is."
+
+Fischer passed out of the offices a few minutes later, followed by many
+curious eyes, and stepped into his automobile. A young man who had
+brushed against him pushed a note into his hand. Fischer opened it as
+his car swung slowly through the traffic:--
+
+Guards at all Connecticut factories doubled. O'Hagan caught last night
+in precincts of small arms factory. Was taken alive, disobeying orders.
+Be careful.
+
+Fischer tore the note into small pieces. His face was grimmer than ever
+as he leaned back amongst the cushions. There were evil things awaiting
+him outside Wall Street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+
+Lutchester breathed the air of Washington and felt almost homesick. The
+stateliness of the city, its sedate and quiescent air after the turmoil
+of New York, impressed him profoundly. Everywhere its diplomatic
+associations made themselves felt. Congress was in session, and the
+faces of the men whom he met continually in the hotels and restaurants
+seemed to him some index of the world power which flung its
+far-reaching arms from beneath the Capitol dome.
+
+One afternoon a few days after his arrival he called at the Hastings'
+house, a great Colonial mansion within a stone's throw of his own
+headquarters. The mention of his name, however, seemed to chill all the
+hospitality out of the smiling face of the southern butler who answered
+his ring. Miss Van Teyl was out, and from the man's manner it was
+obvious that Miss Van Teyl would continue to be out for a very long
+time. Lutchester retraced his steps to the British Embassy, where he
+had spent most of the morning, and made his way to the sitting-room of
+one of the secretaries. The Honourable Philip Downing, who was eagerly
+waiting for a cable recalling him to take up a promised commission,
+welcomed him heartily.
+
+"Things are slack here to-day, old fellow. Let's go out to the Country
+Club and have a few sets of tennis or a game of golf, whichever you
+prefer," he suggested. "I've done my little lot till the evening."
+
+"Show on to-night, isn't there?" Lutchester inquired.
+
+"Just a reception. You're going to put in an appearance?"
+
+"I fancy so. Have you got your list of guests handy?"
+
+The young man dived into a drawer and produced a few typewritten
+sheets.
+
+"Alphabetical list of acceptances, with here and there a few personal
+notes," he pointed out, with an air of self-satisfaction. "I go through
+this list with the chief while he's changing for dinner."
+
+Lutchester ran his forefinger down the list.
+
+"Senator Theodore and Mrs. Hastings," he quoted. "By the bye, they have
+a niece staying with them."
+
+"Want a card for her?" the Honourable Philip inquired with a grin.
+
+"I should like it sent off this moment," Lutchester replied.
+
+The young man took a square, gilt-edged card from a drawer by his side,
+filled it out at Lutchester's dictation, rang the bell, and dispatched
+it by special messenger.
+
+"I've got my little buzzer outside," he observed. "We'll make tracks
+for the club, if you're ready."
+
+The two men played several sets of tennis and afterwards lounged in two
+wicker chairs, underneath a gigantic plane tree in a corner of the
+lawn. The place was crowded, and Philip Downing was an excellent
+showman.
+
+"Washington," he explained, "has never been so divided into opposite
+camps, and this is almost the only common meeting ground. Every one has
+to come here, of course. The German Staff play tennis and the Austrians
+all go in for polo. Here comes Ziduski. He's most fearfully popular
+with the ladies here--does us a lot of harm, they say. He's a great
+sticker for etiquette. He used to nod and call me Phil. Now you watch.
+He'll bow from his waist, as though he had corsets on. As a matter of
+fact, he's a good sportsman."
+
+Count Ziduski's bow was stiff enough but his intention was obvious. He
+stopped before the two men, exchanged a somewhat stilted greeting with
+Philip Downing, and turned to Lutchester.
+
+"I believe," he said, "that I have the honour of addressing Mr.
+Lutchester?"
+
+Lutchester rose to his feet.
+
+"That is my name," he admitted.
+
+"We have met in Rome, I think, and in Paris," the Count reminded him.
+"If I might beg for the favour of a few moments' conversation with
+you."
+
+The two men strolled away together. The Count plunged at once into the
+middle of things.
+
+"It is you, sir, I believe, whom I have to thank for the abrupt
+departure of Mademoiselle Sonia from New York?"
+
+"Quite true," Lutchester admitted.
+
+"Under different circumstances," the Count proceeded, "I might regard
+such interference in my affairs in a different manner. Here, of course,
+that is impossible. I speak to you out of regard for the lady in
+question. You appear in some mysterious manner to have discovered the
+fact that she was in the habit of bringing entirely unimportant and
+non-political messages from dear friends in France."
+
+"Mademoiselle Sonia," Lutchester said calmly, "had for a brief space of
+time forgotten herself. She was engaged in carrying out espionage work
+on your behalf. I believe I may say that she will do so no more."
+
+The Count was a man of medium height, thin, with complexion absolutely
+colourless, and deep-set, tired eyes. At this moment, however, he
+seemed endowed with the spirit of a new virility. The cane which he
+grasped might have been a dagger. His smooth tones nursed a threat.
+
+"Mr. Lutchester," he declared, "if harm should come to her through your
+information, I swear to God that you shall pay!"
+
+Lutchester's manner was mild and unprovocative.
+
+"Count," he replied, "we make no war upon women. Sonia has repented,
+and the knowledge which I have of her misdeeds will be shared by no
+one. She has gone back to her country to work for the Red Cross there.
+So far as I am concerned, that is the end."
+
+The two men walked a few steps further in unbroken silence. Then the
+Count raised his hat.
+
+"Mr. Lutchester," he said, "yours is the reply of an honourable enemy.
+I might have trusted you, but Sonia is half of my life. I offer you my
+thanks."
+
+He strolled away, and Lutchester rejoined his young friend.
+
+"The lion and the lamb seem to have parted safely!" the latter
+exclaimed. "Now sit by my side and I will show you interesting things.
+Those four irreproachable young men over there in tennis flannels are
+all from the German Embassy. The two elder ones behind are Austrians.
+All those women are the wives of Senators who sympathise with Germany.
+Their husbands look like it, don't they? To-day they have an addition
+to their ranks--the thin, elderly man there, whose clothes were
+evidently made in London. That's Senator Hastings. He is a personal
+friend of the President. Jove, what a beautiful girl with Mrs.
+Hastings!"
+
+"That," Lutchester told him, "is the young lady to whom you have just
+sent a card of invitation for to-night."
+
+"Then here's hoping that she comes," Philip Downing observed, finishing
+his glass of mint julep. "Is she a pal of yours?"
+
+"Yes, I know her," Lutchester admitted.
+
+"Let's go and butt in, then," Downing suggested. "I love breaking up
+these little gatherings. You'll see them all stiffen when we come near.
+I hope they haven't got hold of Hastings, though."
+
+The two men rose to their feet and crossed the lawn. Fischer, who had
+suddenly appeared in the background, whispered something in Mrs.
+Hastings' ear. She swung around to Pamela, a second too late. Pamela,
+with a word of excuse to the young man with whom she was talking,
+stepped away from the circle and held out her hand to Lutchester.
+
+"So you have really come to Washington!" she exclaimed.
+
+"As a rescuer," Lutchester replied. "I feel that I have a mission. We
+cannot afford to lose your sympathies. May I introduce Philip Downing?"
+
+Pamela shook hands with the young man and took her place between them.
+
+"I've been envying you your seat under the tree," she said. "Couldn't
+we go there for a few moments?"
+
+Mrs. Hastings detached herself and approached them. She received Philip
+Downing's bow cordially, and she was almost civil to Lutchester.
+
+"I can't have my niece taken away," she protested. "We are just going
+in to tea, Pamela."
+
+Pamela shook her head.
+
+"I am going to sit under that tree with Mr. Lutchester and Mr.
+Downing," she declared. "Tea doesn't attract me in the least, and that
+tree does."
+
+Mrs. Hastings accepted defeat with a somewhat cynical gracefulness. She
+closed her lorgnette with a little snap.
+
+"You leave us all desolated, my dear Pamela," she said. "You remind me
+of what your poor dear father used to say--'Almost any one could live
+with Pamela if she always had her own way.'"
+
+Pamela laughed as she strolled across the lawn.
+
+"Aren't one's relatives trying!" she murmured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+
+Philip Downing very soon justified the profession to which he belonged
+by strolling off with some excuse about paying his respects to some
+acquaintances. Pamela and Lutchester immediately dropped the somewhat
+frivolous tone of their conversation.
+
+"You know that things are moving with our friend Fischer?" she began.
+
+"I gathered so," Lutchester assented.
+
+"His scheme is growing into shape," she went on. "You know what
+wonderful people his friends are for organising. Well, they are going
+to start a society all through the States and nominate for its
+president--Uncle Theodore."
+
+"Will they have any show at all?" Lutchester asked curiously.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Who can tell? The German-Americans are very powerful indeed all
+through the West, and then the pacifists will join them. You see, I
+believe that although the soul of the country is with the Allies,
+England is the most tactless country in the world. She is always giving
+little pinpricks to the Government over here, either about maritime law
+or one thing or another. Then all those articles in the papers about
+America being too proud to fight, the sneering tone of some, even, of
+the leading reviews, did a lot of harm. Uncle Theodore is going to
+stand for what they call the true neutrality. That is to say, no
+munitions, no help for either side."
+
+"Well, I don't know anything about American politics," Lutchester
+confessed, "but I shouldn't think he'd have an earthly chance."
+
+"Money is immensely powerful," she went on reflectively, "and many of
+the great money interests of the country are controlled by
+German-Americans. Mr. Fischer has almost thrown me over politically,
+but Uncle Theodore is crazy about the idea of a German pledge to
+protect America against Japan. That is going to be the great argument
+which he will keep up his sleeve until after the nomination."
+
+"Fischer's trump card," Lutchester observed. "He hasn't shown you a
+certain autograph letter yet, I suppose?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"He may have shown it to Uncle Theodore. I'm afraid he doesn't mean to
+approach me again. He seems to have completely changed his attitude
+towards me since the night he saw us at the Ritz-Carlton dining
+together. He was going to show me the letter the first day after his
+arrival in Washington. Instead of that, he has been in the house for
+hours at a time without making the slightest attempt to see me."
+
+"Faithless fellow!" Lutchester murmured. "Nothing like an Englishman,
+after all, for absolute fidelity."
+
+"Do you really think so?" Pamela inquired anxiously. "Do you think I
+should be safe in trusting my heart and future to an Englishman?"
+
+"To one particular Englishman, yes!" was the firm reply. "I was rather
+hoping you might have made up your mind."
+
+"Too many things to think about," she laughed. "How long are you going
+to stay in Washington?"
+
+"A few hours or days or weeks--until I have finished the work that
+brought me here."
+
+"And what exactly is that?"
+
+"You ask me lightly," he replied, "but, if you are willing, I have
+decided to take you into my confidence. Our friend Nikasti will be here
+to-morrow. He was to have sailed for Japan yesterday, but he has
+postponed his voyage for a few days. Do you know much about the
+Japanese, Miss Pamela?"
+
+"Very little," she acknowledged.
+
+"Well, I will tell you one thing. They are not very good at forgiving.
+There was only one way I could deal with Nikasti in New York, and it
+was a brutal way. I have seen him twice since. He wouldn't look me in
+the eyes. I know what that means. He hates me. In a sense I don't
+believe he would allow that to interfere in any way with his mission.
+In another sense it would. The Allies, above all things, have need of
+Japan. We want Japan and America to be friends. We don't want Germany
+butting in between the two. Baron Yung is a very clever man, but he is
+even more impenetrable than his countrymen generally are. Our people
+here admit that they find it difficult to progress with him very far.
+They believe that secretly he is in sympathy with Nikasti's reports--
+but you don't know about those, I suppose?"
+
+"I don't think I do," she admitted.
+
+"Nikasti was sent to England some years ago to report upon us as a
+country. Japan at that time was meditating an alliance with one of the
+great European Powers. Obviously it must be Germany or England. Nikasti
+travelled all through England, studied our social life, measured our
+weaknesses; did the same through Germany, returned to Japan, and gave
+his vote in favour of Germany. I have even seen a copy of his report.
+He laid great stress upon the absolute devotion to sport of our young
+men, and the entire absence of any patriotic sentiment or any means of
+national defence. Well, as you know, for various reasons his counsels
+were over-ridden, and Japan chose the British alliance. That was
+entirely the fault of imperfect German diplomacy. At a time like this,
+though, I cannot help thinking that some elements of his former
+distrust still remain in Nikasti's mind, and I have an idea that Baron
+Yung is, to a certain extent, a sympathiser. I've got to get at the
+bottom of this before I leave the States. If I need your help, will you
+give it me?"
+
+"If I can," she promised.
+
+They saw Mrs. Hastings' figure on the terrace, waving, and Pamela rose
+reluctantly to her feet.
+
+"I don't suppose," Lutchester continued, as they strolled across the
+lawn, "that you have very much influence with your uncle, or that he
+would listen very much to anything that you have to say, but if he is
+really in earnest about this thing, he is going to play a terribly
+dangerous game. As things are at present, he has a very pleasant and
+responsible position as the supporter and friend of very able men. With
+regard to this new movement, he may find the whole ground crumble away
+beneath his feet. Fischer is playing the game of a madman. It isn't
+only political defeat that might come to him, but disgrace--even
+dishonour."
+
+"You frighten me," Pamela confessed gravely.
+
+Lutchester sighed.
+
+"Your uncle," he went on, "is one of those thoroughly conceited,
+egotistical men who will probably listen to no one. You see, I have
+found out a little about him already. But they tell me that her social
+position means a great deal to your aunt. Neither her birth nor her
+friends could save her if Fischer drags your uncle to his chariot
+wheels."
+
+"Do you think, perhaps, that you underestimate Mr. Fischer's position
+over here?" she asked thoughtfully.
+
+"I don't think I do," he replied, "but here is something which you have
+scarcely appreciated. Fischer has had the effrontery to link himself up
+with a little crowd of Germans all through the States, who are making
+organised attempts to destroy the factories where ammunitions are being
+made for the Allies. That sort of thing, you know, would bring any one,
+however, distantly connected with it, to Sing Sing.... One moment," he
+added quickly, as Mrs. Hastings stepped forward to meet them; "the
+reception at the British Embassy to-night?"
+
+"The others are going," she said. "My aunt didn't feel she was
+sufficiently--"
+
+"We sent you a card round especially this afternoon," Lutchester
+interrupted. "You'll come?"
+
+"How nice of you! Of course I will," she promised.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+
+"Small affair, this," Downing observed, as he piloted Lutchester
+through the stately reception rooms of the Embassy. "You see, we are
+all living a sort of touchy life here, nowadays. We try to be civil to
+any of the German or Austrian lot when we meet, but of course they
+don't come to our functions. And every now and then some of those
+plaguey neutrals get the needle and they don't come, so we never know
+quite where we are, Guadopolis has been avoiding us lately, and I hear
+he was seen out at the Lakewood Country Club with Count Reszka, the
+Rumanian Minister, a few days ago. Gave the Chief quite a little
+flurry, that did."
+
+"There's an idea over in London," Lutchester remarked, "that a good
+deal of the war is being shaped in Washington nowadays."
+
+"That is the Chief's notion," Downing assented. "I know he's pining to
+talk to you, so we'll go and do the dutiful."
+
+Lutchester was welcomed as an old friend by both the Ambassador and his
+wife. The former drew him to a divan from which he could watch the
+entrance to the rooms, and sat by his side.
+
+"I am glad they sent you out, Lutchester," he said earnestly. "If ever
+a country needed watching by a man with intelligence and experience,
+this one does to-day."
+
+"Do you happen to know that fellow Oscar Fischer?" Lutchester asked.
+
+"I do, and I consider him one of the most dangerous people in the
+States for us," the Ambassador declared. "He has a great following,
+huge wealth, and, although he is not a man of culture, he doesn't go
+about his job in that bull-headed way that most of them do."
+
+"He's trying things on with Japan," Lutchester observed. "I think I
+shall manage to checkmate him there all right. But there's another
+scheme afloat that I don't follow so closely. You know Senator
+Hastings, I suppose?"
+
+The Ambassador nodded.
+
+"Senator Theodore Hastings," he repeated thoughtfully. "Yes, he's
+rather a dark horse. He is supposed to be the President's bosom friend,
+but I hear whispers that he'd give his soul for a nomination, adopt any
+cause or fight any one's battle."
+
+"That's my own idea of him," Lutchester replied, "and I think you will
+find him in the field with a pretty definite platform before long."
+
+"You think he's mixed up with Fischer?" the Ambassador inquired.
+
+"I'm sure he is," Lutchester assented. "Not only that, but they have
+something up their sleeve. I think I can guess what it is, but I'm not
+sure. How have things seemed to you here lately?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, I haven't liked the look of them," the
+Ambassador confided. "There's something afoot, and I can't be sure what
+it is. Look at the crowd to-night. Of course, all the Americans are
+here, but the diplomatic attendance has never been so thin. The
+Rumanian Minister and his wife, the Italian, the Spanish, and the
+Swedish representatives are all absent. I have just heard, too, that
+Baron von Schwerin is giving a dinner-party."
+
+Lutchester looked thoughtfully at the little stream of people. The
+Ambassador left him for a few moments to welcome some late comers. He
+returned presently and resumed his seat by Lutchester's side.
+
+"Of course," he continued, lowering his voice, "all formal
+communications between us and the enemy Embassies have ceased, but it
+has come to be an understood thing, to avoid embarrassments to our
+mutual friends, that we do not hold functions on the same day. I heard
+that Von Schwerin was giving this dinner-party, so I sent round this
+morning to inquire. The reply was that it was entirely a private one.
+One of our youngsters brought us in a list of the guests a short time
+ago. I see Hastings is one of them, and Fischer, and Rumania and Greece
+will be represented. Now Hastings was to have been here, and as a rule
+the neutrals are very punctilious."
+
+"I suppose the way that naval affair was represented didn't do us any
+good," Lutchester observed.
+
+"It did us harm, without a doubt," was the lugubrious admission.
+"Still, fortunately, these people over here are clever enough to
+understand our idiosyncrasies. I honestly think we'd rather whine about
+a defeat than glory in a victory."
+
+"Diplomatically, too," Lutchester remarked thoughtfully, "I should have
+said that things seemed all right here. The President comes in for a
+great deal of abuse in some countries. Personally, I think he has been
+wonderful."
+
+The Ambassador nodded.
+
+"You and I both know, Lutchester," he said, "that the last thing we
+want is to find America dragged into this war. Such a happening would
+be nothing more nor less than a catastrophe in itself, to say nothing
+of the internal dissensions here. On the other hand, as things are now,
+Washington is becoming a perfect arena for diplomatic chicanery, and I
+have just an instinct--I can't define it in any way--which leads me to
+believe that some fresh trouble has started within the last twenty-four
+hours."
+
+Lady Ridlingshawe motioned to her husband with her fan, and he rose at
+once to his feet.
+
+"I must leave you to look after yourself for a time, Lutchester," he
+concluded. "You'll find plenty of people here you know. Don't go until
+you've seen me again."
+
+Lutchester wandered off in search of Pamela. He found her with Mrs.
+Hastings, surrounded by a little crowd of acquaintances. Pamela waved
+her fan, and they made way for him.
+
+"Mr. Lutchester, I have been looking everywhere for you!" she
+exclaimed. "What a secretive person you are! Why couldn't you tell me
+that Lady Ridlingshawe was your cousin? I want you to take me to her,
+please, I met her sister out in Nice."
+
+She laid her fingers upon his arm, and they passed out of the little
+circle.
+
+"All bluff, of course," she murmured. "Find the quietest place you can.
+I want to talk to you."
+
+They wandered out on to a balcony where some of the younger people were
+taking ices. She leaned over the wooden rail.
+
+"Listen," she said, "I adore this atmosphere, and I am perfectly
+certain there is something going on--something exciting, I mean. You
+know that the Baron von Schwerin has a dinner-party?"
+
+"I know that," he assented.
+
+"Uncle Theodore is going with Mr. Fischer. He was invited at the last
+moment, and I understand that his presence was specially requested."
+
+Lutchester stood for a short time in an absorbed and sombre silence. In
+the deep blue twilight his face seemed to have fallen into sterner
+lines. Without a doubt he was disturbed. Pamela looked at him
+anxiously.
+
+"Is anything the matter?" she asked.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Nothing definite, only for the last few hours I have felt that things
+here are reaching a crisis. There is something going on around us,
+something which seems to fill Fischer and his friends with confidence,
+something which I don't quite understand, and which it is my business
+to understand. That is really what is worrying me."
+
+She nodded sympathetically and glanced around for a moment.
+
+"Let me tell you something," she whispered. "This evening my uncle came
+into my room just before dinner. There is a little safe built in the
+wall for jewellery. He begged for the loan of it. His library safe, he
+said, was out of order. I couldn't see what he put in, but when he had
+closed the door he stood looking at it for a moment curiously. I made
+some jesting remark about its being a treasure chest, but he answered
+me seriously. 'You are going to sleep to-night, Pamela,' he said,
+'within a few yards of a dozen or so of written words which will change
+the world's history.'"
+
+Lutchester was listening intently. There was a prolonged pause.
+
+"Well?" he asked, at last.
+
+She glanced at the little Yale key which hung from her bracelet.
+
+"Nothing! I was just wondering how I should be able to sleep through
+the night without opening the safe."
+
+"But surely your uncle didn't give you the key!"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I don't suppose he knows I have such a thing," she replied. "He has a
+master-key himself to all the safes, which he used. This is one the
+housekeeper gave me as soon as I arrived."
+
+Lutchester looked out into the darkness.
+
+"Tell me," he inquired, "is that your house--the next one to this?"
+
+"That's the old Hastings' house," she assented. "They are all family
+mansions along here."
+
+"It looks an easy place to burgle," he remarked.
+
+She laughed quietly.
+
+"I should think it would be," she admitted. "There are any quantity of
+downstair windows. We don't have burglaries in Washington, though
+--certainly not this side of the city."
+
+A little bevy of young people had found their way into the gardens.
+Lutchester waited until they had passed out of earshot before he spoke
+again.
+
+"I have reason to believe," he continued, "that in the course of their
+negotiations Fischer has deposited with your uncle a certain autograph
+letter, of which we have already spoken, making definite proposals to
+America if she will change her attitude on the neutrality question."
+
+"The written words," Pamela murmured.
+
+Lutchester's hand suddenly closed upon her wrist. She was surprised to
+find his fingers so cold, yet marvellously tenacious.
+
+"You are going to lose that key and I am going to find it," he said,
+quietly. "I am sorry--but you must."
+
+"I am going to do nothing of the sort," Pamela objected.
+
+His fingers remained like a cold vice upon her wrist. She made no
+effort to draw it away.
+
+"Listen," he said; "do you believe that the Hastings-cum-Fischer party
+is going to be the best thing that could happen for America?"
+
+"I certainly do not," she admitted.
+
+"Then do as I beg. Let me take that key from your bracelet. You shall
+have no other responsibility."
+
+"And what are you going to do with it?"
+
+"You must leave that to me," he answered. "I will tell you as much as I
+can. I stopped Nikasti sailing for Japan, but I made a mortal enemy of
+him at the same time. He has come to Washington to consult with his
+Ambassador. They are together tonight. It is my mission to convince
+them of Germany's duplicity."
+
+"I see.... And you think that these written words--?"
+
+"Give the key to me," he begged, "and ask no questions."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I should object most strongly to nocturnal disturbers of my slumbers!"
+
+It seemed to her that his frame had become tenser, his tone harder. The
+grip of his fingers was still upon her wrist.
+
+"Even your objection," he said, "might not relieve you of the
+possibility of their advent."
+
+"Don't be silly," she answered, "and, above all, don't try to threaten
+me. If you want my help--"
+
+She looked steadfastly across at the looming outline of the Hastings'
+house.
+
+"I do want your help," he assured her.
+
+"How long should you require the letter for?"
+
+"One hour," he replied.
+
+She led him down some steps on to the smooth lawns which encircled the
+house. They passed in and out of some gigantic shrubs until at last
+they came to a paling. She felt along it for a few yards.
+
+"There is a gate there," she told him. "Can you do anything with it?"
+
+It was fastened by an old lock. He lifted it off its hinges, and they
+both passed through.
+
+"Keep behind the shrubs as much as you can," she whispered. "There is a
+way into the house from the verandah here."
+
+They reached at last the shadow of the building. She paused.
+
+"Wait here for me," she continued. "I would rather enter the house
+without being seen, if I can, but it doesn't really matter. I can make
+some excuse for coming back. Don't move from where you are."
+
+She glided away from him and disappeared. Lutchester waited, standing
+well back in the shadow of the shrubs. From the Embassy came all the
+time the sound of music, occasionally even the murmur of voices; from
+the dark house in front of him, nothing. Suddenly he heard what seemed
+to be the opening of a window, and then soft footsteps. Pamela appeared
+round the corner of the building, a white, spectral figure against that
+background of deep blue darkness. She came on tiptoe, running down the
+steps and holding her skirts with both hands.
+
+"Not a soul has seen me," she whispered. "Take this quickly."
+
+She thrust an envelope into his hands, and something hard with it.
+
+"That's Uncle Theodore's seal," she explained. "He sealed up the
+envelope when he put it in there. Now come back quickly to the Embassy.
+You must please hurry with what you want to do. If I have left when you
+return, you must come back to exactly this place. That window"--she
+pointed upwards--"will be wide open. You must throw a pine cone or a
+pebble through it. I shall be waiting."
+
+"I understand," he assured her.
+
+They retraced their steps. Once more they drew near to the Embassy. The
+night had grown warmer and more windows had been opened. They reached
+the verandah. She touched his hand for a moment.
+
+"Well," she said, "I don't know whether I have been wise or not. Try
+and be back in less than an hour, if you can. I am going in alone."
+
+She left him, and Lutchester, after a few brief words with the
+Ambassador, hurried away to his task. In twenty minutes he stood before
+a tall, grey-stone building, a few blocks away, was admitted by a
+Japanese butler, and conducted, after some hesitation, into a large
+room at the back of the house. An elderly man, dressed for the evening,
+with the lapel of his coat covered with orders, was awaiting him.
+
+"I am a stranger to you, Baron," Lutchester began.
+
+"That does not matter," was the grave reply. "Ten minutes ago I had an
+urgent telephone call from our mutual friend. His Excellency told me
+that he was sending a special messenger, and begged me to give you a
+few minutes. I have left a conference of some importance, and I am
+here."
+
+"A few minutes will be enough," Lutchester promised. "I am engaged by
+the English Government upon Secret Service work. I came to America,
+following a man named Fischer. You have heard of him?"
+
+"I have heard of him," the Ambassador acknowledged.
+
+"In New York," Lutchester continued, "he met one of your countrymen,
+Prince Nikasti, a man, I may add," Lutchester went on, "for whom I have
+the highest respect and esteem, although quite openly, years ago, he
+pronounced himself unfavourably disposed towards my country. The object
+of Fischer's meeting with Prince Nikasti was to convey to him certain
+definite proposals on behalf of the German Government. They wish for a
+rapprochement with your country. They offer certain terms, confirmation
+of which Fischer brought with him in an autograph letter."
+
+There was a moment's silence. Not a word came from the man who seemed
+to have learnt the gift of sitting with absolute immovability. Even his
+eyes did not blink. He sat and waited.
+
+"The proposals made to you are plausible and deserving of
+consideration," Lutchester proceeded. "Do not think that there exists
+in my mind, or would exist in the mind of any Englishman knowing of
+them, any feeling of resentment that these proposals should have been
+received by you for consideration. Nothing in this world counts to
+those who follow the arts of diplomacy, save the simple welfare of the
+people whom he represents. It is therefore the duty of every patriot to
+examine carefully all proposals made to him likely to militate to the
+advantage of his own people. You have a letter, offering you certain
+terms to withdraw from your present alliances. Here is a letter from
+the same source, in the same handwriting, written to America. Break the
+seal yourself. It was brought to this country by Fischer, in the same
+dispatch box as yours, to be handed to some responsible person in the
+American Government. It was handed to Senator Theodore Hastings. It is
+to form part of his platform on the day when his nomination as
+President is announced. It must be back in his safe within
+three-quarters of an hour. Break the seal and read it."
+
+The Japanese held out his hand, broke the seal of the envelope, and
+read. His face remained immovable. When he had finished he looked up at
+his visitor.
+
+"I am permitted to take a copy?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly!"
+
+He touched a bell, spoke down a mouthpiece, and with almost necromantic
+swiftness two young men were in the room. A camera was dragged out, a
+little flash of light shot up to the ceiling, and the attaches vanished
+as quickly as they had come. The Ambassador replaced the document in
+its envelope, handed a stick of sealing-wax and a candle to Lutchester,
+who leaned over and resealed the envelope.
+
+"The negative?" he enquired.
+
+"Will be kept under lock and key," the Ambassador promised. "It will
+pass into the archives of Japanese history. In future we shall know."
+
+Once more he touched a bell. The door was opened. Lutchester found
+himself escorted into the street. He was back at the Embassy in time to
+meet a little stream of departing guests. Lady Ridlingshawe patted him
+on the shoulder with her fan.
+
+"Deserter!" she exclaimed, reproachfully, "Wherever have you been
+hiding?"
+
+Lutchester made some light reply and passed on. He made his way out
+into the gardens. The darkness now was a little more sombre, and he had
+to grope his way to the palings. Soon he stood before the dark outline
+of the adjoining house. In the window towards which he was making his
+way a single candle in a silver candlestick was burning. He paused
+underneath and listened. Then he took a pine cone which he had picked
+up on his way and threw it through the open window. The candle was
+withdrawn. A shadowy form leaned out.
+
+"I'm quite alone," she assured him softly. "Can you throw it in?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I think so."
+
+His first effort was successful. The seal followed, wrapped up in his
+handkerchief. A moment or two later he saw Pamela's face at the window.
+
+"Good night!" she whispered. "Quickly, please. There is still some one
+about downstairs."
+
+The light was extinguished. Lutchester made his way cautiously back,
+replaced the gate upon its hinges and reached the shelter of the Embassy,
+denuded now of guests. He found Downing in the smoking-room.
+
+"Can I get a whisky and soda?" Lutchester asked, in response to the
+latter's vociferous greeting.
+
+"Call it a highball," was the prompt reply, "and you can have as many
+as you like. Have you earned it?" he added, a little curiously.
+
+"I almost believe that I have," Lutchester assented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+
+Mr. Oscar Fischer and his friend, Senator Theodore Hastings, stood side
+by side, a week later, in the bar of one of the most fashionable of New
+York hotels. They were passing away the few minutes before Pamela and
+her aunt would be ready to join them in the dining room above.
+
+"Very little news, I fancy," Hastings remarked, glancing at the tape
+which was passing through his companion's fingers.
+
+"Nothing--of any importance," Fischer replied. "Nothing."
+
+The older man glanced searchingly at his companion, the change in whose
+tone was ominous. Fischer was standing with the tape in his hand, his
+eyes glued upon a certain paragraph. The Senator took out his
+eyeglasses and looked over his friend's shoulder.
+
+"What's this?" he demanded. "Eh?"
+
+Fischer was fighting a great battle and fighting it well.
+
+"Something wrong, apparently, with Frank Roughton," he observed; "an
+old college friend of mine. They made him Governor of----only last
+year."
+
+Hastings read the item thoughtfully.
+
+Governor Roughton this morning tendered his resignation as Governor of
+the State of----. We understand that it was at once accepted. Numerous
+arrests have taken place with reference to the great explosion at the
+Bembridge powder factory.
+
+"Looks rather fishy, that," Hastings observed thoughtfully.
+
+"I'm sorry for Roughton," Fischer declared. "He was a perfectly
+straight man, and I am sure he has done his best."
+
+"Great friend of yours?" the other asked curiously.
+
+"We were intimately acquainted," was the brief answer.
+
+The two men finished their cocktails in silence. On their way upstairs
+the Senator took his companion's arm.
+
+"Fischer," he said, "you'll forgive me if I put a certain matter to you
+plainly?"
+
+"Naturally!"
+
+"Within the last few days," Hastings proceeded, "there have been seven
+explosions or fires at various factories throughout the States. It is a
+somewhat significant circumstance," he added, after a slight pause,
+"that every one of these misfortunes has occurred at a factory where
+munitions of some sort for the Allies have been in process of
+manufacture. Shrewd men have naturally come to the conclusion that
+there is some organisation at work."
+
+"I should doubt it," Fischer replied. "You must remember that there is
+always a great risk of disasters in factories where explosives are
+being handled. It is a new thing to many of the manufacturers here,
+and it is obvious that they are not making use of all the necessary
+precautions."
+
+"I see," Hastings observed, reflectively. "So that is how you would
+explain this epidemic of disasters, eh?"
+
+"Certainly!"
+
+"At the same time, Fischer, to set my mind entirely at rest," Hastings
+continued, "I should like your assurance that you have nothing whatever
+to do with any organisation, should there be such a thing, including in
+its object the destruction of American property."
+
+"I will do more than answer your question in the direct negative," was
+the firm reply. "I will assure you that no such organisation exists."
+
+"I am relieved to hear it," Hastings confessed. "This resignation of
+Roughton, however, seems a strange thing. Most of these fires have
+occurred in his State.... Ah! there is Senator Joyce waiting for us,
+and Pamela and Mrs. Hastings."
+
+Mr. Hastings as a host was in his element. His manners and tact, which
+his enemies declared were far too perfect, were both admirably
+displayed in the smaller ways of life. He guided the conversation into
+light yet opportune subjects, and he utterly ignored the fact that
+Senator Joyce, one of the great politicians of the day, whose support
+of his nomination was already more than half promised, seemed distrait
+and a little cold. It was Pamela who quite inadvertently steered the
+conversation into a dangerous channel.
+
+"What has Governor Roughton been doing, Mr. Fischer?" she asked.
+
+There was a moment's silence. Pamela's question had fallen something
+like a bombshell amongst the little party. It was their guest who
+replied.
+
+"The matter is occupying the attention of the country very largely at
+the moment, Miss Van Teyl," he said. "It is perhaps unfortunate that
+Governor Roughton seems to have allowed his sympathies to be so clearly
+known."
+
+"He is a German by birth, is he not?" Pamela inquired.
+
+"Most decidedly not," Fischer asserted. "I was at Harvard with him."
+
+"All the same," Pamela murmured under her breath, "I think that he was
+born at Stuttgart."
+
+"He is an American citizen," Senator Joyce observed, "and has reached a
+high position here. We of the Administration may be wrong," he
+continued, "but we believe, and we think that we have a right to
+believe, that when any man of conscience and ideals takes the oath, he
+is free from all previous prejudices. He is an American citizen--
+nothing more and nothing less."
+
+"Of course, that is magnificent," Pamela declared, "but it isn't common
+sense, is it, and you haven't answered my original question yet."
+
+"I am not in a position to do so, Miss Van Teyl," Joyce replied. "The
+trouble probably is that Governor Roughton has been considered
+incompetent as so many of these disasters have taken place unhindered
+in his State."
+
+"There was a rumour," Pamela persisted, "that he was under arrest."
+
+"Quite untrue, I am sure," Fischer muttered.
+
+There was a general diversion of the conversation, but the sense of
+uneasiness remained. Pamela and Mrs. Hastings, at the conclusion of the
+little banquet, acting upon a hint from their host, made their way to
+one of the small drawing-rooms for their coffee. Left alone, the three
+men drew their chairs closer together. Joyce's fine face seemed somehow
+to have become a little harder and more unsympathetic. He sipped the
+water, which was his only beverage, and pushed away the cigars in which
+he generally indulged.
+
+"Mr. Hastings," he pronounced, "I have given the subject of supporting
+your nomination my deepest consideration. I was at one time, I must
+confess, favourably disposed towards the idea. I have changed my mind.
+I have decided to give my support to the present Administration."
+
+Fischer's face was dark with anger. He even allowed an expletive to
+escape from his lips. Hastings, however, remained master of himself.
+
+"I will not conceal from you, Mr. Joyce," he confessed, "that I am
+exceedingly disappointed. You have fully considered everything, I
+presume--our pledge, for instance, to nominate you as my successor?"
+
+"I have considered everything," Joyce replied. "The drawback in my
+mind, to be frank with you, is that I doubt whether you would receive
+sufficient support throughout the country. It is my idea," he went on,
+"although I may be wrong, of course, that the support of the
+German-Americans who, you must allow me to maintain, are an exceedingly
+unneutral part of America, will place you in an unpopular position.
+Should you succeed in getting yourself elected, which I very much
+doubt, you will be an unpopular President. I would rather wait my
+time."
+
+"You have changed your views," Fischer muttered.
+
+"To be perfectly frank with you, I have," Joyce acknowledged. "These
+outrages throughout the States are, to my mind, blatant and criminal.
+Directly or indirectly, the German-American public is responsible for
+them--indirectly, by inflammatory speeches, reckless journalism, and
+point-blank laudation of illegal acts; directly--well, here I can speak
+only from my own suspicions, so I will remain silent. But my mind is
+made up. A man in this country, as you know," he added, "need make only
+one mistake and his political future is blasted. I am not inclined to
+risk making that one mistake."
+
+Hastings sighed. He was making a brave effort to conceal a great
+disappointment.
+
+"One cannot argue with you, Mr. Joyce," he regretted. "You have come to
+a certain conclusion, and words are not likely to alter it. There is no
+one I would so dearly have loved to number amongst my supporters, but I
+see that it is a privilege for which I may not hope.... We will, if you
+are ready, Fischer, join the ladies."
+
+They rose from the table a few minutes later.
+
+Fischer, who had been eagerly watching his opportunity, drew Senator
+Joyce on one side for a moment as they passed down the crowded
+corridor.
+
+"Mr. Joyce," he said, "I have heard your decision to-night with deeper
+regret than I can express, yet more than ever it has brought home one
+truth to me. Our position towards you was a wrong one. We offered you a
+reversion when we should have offered you the thing itself."
+
+Senator Joyce swung around.
+
+"Say, Mr. Fischer, what are you getting at?" he asked bluntly.
+
+"I mean that it is Hastings and I who should have been your supporters,
+and you who should have been our candidate," Fischer suggested boldly.
+"What about it? It isn't too late."
+
+"Nothing doing, sir," was the firm reply. "Theodore Hastings may not be
+exactly my type of man, but I am not out to see him cornered like that,
+and besides, to tell you the honest truth, Mr. Fischer," he added,
+pausing at the door, "when I stand for the Presidency, I want to do so
+not on the nomination of you or your friends, or any underground
+schemers. I want the support of the real American citizen. I want to be
+free from, all outside ties and obligations. I want to stand for
+America, and America only, I not only want to be President, you see,
+but I want to be the chosen President of the right sort of people.... I
+am going to ask you to excuse me to the ladies and our host, Mr.
+Fischer," he concluded, holding out his hand. "I had a note asking me
+to visit the Attorney General, which I only received on my way here. I
+have an idea that it is about this Roughton business."
+
+Fischer returned to the others alone. Hastings was clearly disturbed at
+his guest's departure. His friend and supporter, however, affected to
+treat it lightly.
+
+"Joyce is like all these lawyers," he declared. "He is simply waiting
+to see which way the wind blows. I have come across them many times.
+They like to wait till parties are evenly balanced, till their support
+makes all the difference, and clinch their bargain then."
+
+"I should have said," Pamela remarked, "that Mr. Joyce was a man above
+that sort of thing."
+
+"Every man has his price and his weak spot," her uncle observed
+didactically. "Joyce's price is the Presidency. His weak spot is
+popular adulation. I agree with Fischer. He will probably join us
+later."
+
+Mr. Hastings was summoned to the telephone, a moment or two later. Mrs.
+Hastings sat down to write a note, and Pamela moved her place over to
+Fischer's side. His face brightened at her spontaneous movement. She
+shook her head, however, at the little compliment with which he
+welcomed her.
+
+"This afternoon," she said softly, "I met Mr. Lutchester."
+
+"Is he back in New York?" Fischer asked, frowning.
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"He told me something which I feel inclined to tell you," she
+continued, glancing into her companion's haggard face with a gleam of
+sympathy in her eyes. "You'll probably see it in the newspapers
+to-morrow morning. Governor Roughton's resignation was compulsory. He
+is under arrest."
+
+"For negligence?"
+
+"For participation," was the grave reply. "Mr. Lutchester has been down
+to--the city where these things took place. He only got back late this
+afternoon."
+
+"Lutchester again!" Fischer muttered.
+
+"You see, it's rather in his line," Pamela reminded him. "He is over
+here to superintend the production of munitions from the factories
+which are working for the British Government."
+
+"He is over here as a sort of general mischief-maker!" Fischer
+exclaimed fiercely. "Do I understand that he has been down in----?"
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"He went down with one of the heads of the New York police."
+
+She turned away, but Fischer caught at her wrist.
+
+"You know more than this!" he cried hoarsely.
+
+The agony in the man's face and tone touched her. After all, he was
+fighting for the great things. There was nothing mean about Fischer,
+nothing selfish about his lying and his crimes.
+
+"I have told you all that I can," she whispered, "but if you hurried,
+you could catch the _New York_ to-night--and I think I should advise
+you to go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+
+Fischer, on leaving his unsuccessful dinner party, drove direct to the
+residence of Mr. Max H. Bookam, in Fifth Avenue. The butler who
+admitted him looked a little blank at his inquiry.
+
+"Mr. Bookam was expected home yesterday, sir," he announced. "He has
+not arrived, however."
+
+"Has there been any telegram from him?--any news as to the cause of his
+non-return?" Fischer persisted.
+
+"I believe that Mr. Kaye, his secretary, has some information, sir,"
+the man admitted. "Perhaps you would like to see him."
+
+Fischer did not hesitate, and was conducted at once to the study in
+which Mr. Bookam was wont to indulge in various nefarious Stock
+Exchange adventures. The room was occupied on this occasion by a
+dejected-looking young man, with pasty face and gold spectacles. The
+apartment, as Fischer was quick to notice, showed signs of a strange
+disorder.
+
+"Where's Mr. Bookam?" he asked quickly.
+
+The young man walked to the door, shook it to be sure that it was
+closed, and came back again. His tone was ominous, almost dramatic.
+
+"In the State Prison at----, sir," he announced.
+
+"What for?" Fischer demanded, breathing a little thickly.
+
+"I have no certain information," the secretary replied, with a
+noncommittal air. "All I know is that I had a long-distance telephone
+to burn certain documents, but before I could do so the room and the
+house were searched by New York detectives, whose warrant it was
+useless to resist."
+
+"But what's the charge against Mr. Bookam?"
+
+"It's something to do with the disasters in----," the young man
+confided. "The Governor of the State, who is Mr. Bookam's cousin, is in
+the same trouble.... Better sit down a moment, sir. You're looking
+white."
+
+Mr. Fischer threw himself into an easy-chair. He felt like a man who
+has built a mighty piece of machinery, has set it swinging through
+space, and watches now its imminent collapse; watches some tiny but
+ghastly flaw, pregnant with disaster, growing wider and wider before
+his eyes.
+
+"What papers did the police take away with them?" he asked.
+
+"There wasn't very much for them," the secretary replied. "There was a
+list of the names of the proposed organisation which, owing to your
+very wise intervention, was never formed. There was a list of factories
+throughout the United States in which munitions are being made, with a
+black mark against those holding the most important contracts. And
+there was a letter from Governor Roughton."
+
+"Mr. Bookam hasn't drawn any cheques lately for large amounts?" Fischer
+inquired eagerly.
+
+"There are three in his private cheque-book, sir, the counterfoils of
+which are not filled in," was the somewhat dreary admission.
+
+Fischer groaned as he received the news.
+
+"Have you any idea about those cheques?" he demanded.
+
+"I am afraid," the other acknowledged, "that Mr. Bookam was not very
+discreet. I reminded him of your advice--that the money should be
+passed through Sullivan--but he didn't seem to think it worth while."
+
+"Look here, let me know the worst at once," Fischer insisted. "Do you
+believe that any one of those cheques was made payable to any of the
+men who are under arrest?"
+
+"I am afraid," the secretary declared sadly, "that the proceeds of one
+were found on the person of Ed. Swindles, intact."
+
+Fischer sat for a moment with his head buried in his hands. "That any
+man could have been such a fool. An organisation would have been a
+thousand times safer. Max Bookam was only a very worthy and industrious
+clothing manufacturer, with an intense love for the Fatherland and a
+great veneration for all her institutions. What he had done, he had
+done whole-heartedly but foolishly. He was a man who should never have
+been trusted for a moment in the game. After all, the pawns count...."
+
+Fischer took his leave and reached his hotel a little before midnight.
+Already he had begun to look over his shoulder in the street. He found
+his rooms empty with a sense of relief, marred by one little
+disappointment. Nikasti was to have been there to bid him farewell--
+Nikasti on his way back to Japan. He ascertained from the office of the
+hotel that there had been no telephone message or caller. Then he
+turned to his correspondence, some presentiment already clutching at
+his strained nerves. There was a letter in a large envelope, near the
+bottom of the pile, addressed to him in Nikasti's fine handwriting. He
+tore open the envelope, and slow horror seized him as he realised its
+contents. A long photograph unrolled itself before his eyes. The first
+few words brought confusion and horror to his sense. His brain reeled.
+This was defeat, indeed! It was a photograph of that other autograph
+letter. The one which he had given to Nikasti to carry to Japan lay--
+gross sacrilege!--about him in small pieces. There was no other line,
+no message, nothing but this damning proof of his duplicity.
+
+A kind of mental torture seized him. He fought like a caged man for
+some way out. Every sort of explanation occurred to him only to be
+rejected, every sort of subterfuge, only to be cast aside with a kind
+of ghastly contempt. He felt suddenly stripped bare. His tongue could
+serve him no more. He snatched at the telephone receiver and rang up
+the number for which he searched eagerly through the book.
+
+"Is that the office of the American Steamship Company?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What time will the _New York_ sail?"
+
+"In three-quarters of an hour. Who's speaking?"
+
+"Mr. Oscar Fischer. Keep anything you have for me."
+
+He threw down the receiver for fear of a refusal, packed a few things
+feverishly in a dressing bag, dashed the rest of his correspondence
+into his pocket, and with the bag in one hand, and an overcoat over the
+other arm, he hastened out into the street. He was obliged at first to
+board a street car. Afterwards he found a taxicab, and drove under the
+great wooden shed as the last siren was blowing. He hurried up the
+gangway, a grim, remorseful figure, a sense of defeat gnawing at his
+heart, a bitter, haunting fear still with him even when, with a shriek
+of the tugs, the great steamer swung into the river. He was leaving
+forever the work to which he had given so much of his life, leaving it
+a fugitive and dishonoured. The blaze of lights, the screaming of the
+great ferry-boats, all the triumphant, brazen noises of the mighty
+city, sounded like a requiem to him as in the darkest part of the
+promenade deck he leaned over the railing and nursed his agony, the
+supreme agony of an ambitious man--failure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+
+"What has become," Mrs. Theodore Hastings asked her niece one afternoon
+about a month later, "of your delightful friend, Mr. Lutchester?"
+
+Pamela laid down her book and looked across at her aunt with wide-open
+eyes.
+
+"Why, I thought you didn't like him, aunt?"
+
+"I cannot remember saying so, my dear," Mrs. Hastings replied. "I had
+nothing against the man himself. It was simply his attitude with regard
+to some of your uncle's plans, of which we disapproved."
+
+Pamela nodded. They were seated on the piazza of the Hastings' country
+house at Manchester.
+
+"I see!... And uncle's plans," she went on reflectively, "have become a
+little changed, haven't they?"
+
+Mrs. Hastings coughed.
+
+"There is no doubt," she admitted, "that your Uncle Theodore was
+inveigled into supporting, to a certain extent, a party whose leaders
+have shown themselves utterly irresponsible. The moment these horrible
+things began to come out, however, your uncle finally cut himself loose
+from them."
+
+"Very wise of him," Pamela murmured.
+
+"Who could have believed," Mrs. Hastings demanded, "that men like Oscar
+Fischer, Max Bookam and a dozen other well-known and prominent
+millionaires, would have stooped to encourage the destruction of American
+property and lives, simply through blind devotion to the country of their
+birth. I could understand," she went on, "both your uncle and I perfectly
+understood that their sympathies were German rather than English, but
+we shared a common belief that notwithstanding this they were Americans
+first and foremost. It was in this belief that your uncle was led into
+temporary association with them."
+
+"Bad luck," Pamela sighed. "I am afraid it hasn't done Uncle Theodore
+any good."
+
+Mrs. Hastings went on with her knitting for a moment.
+
+"My child," she said, "it has probably imperilled, if it has not
+completely ruined, one of the great hopes which your uncle and I have
+sometimes entertained. We are both of us, however, quite philosophical
+about it. Even at this moment I am convinced that if these men had
+acted with discretion, and been content to wield political influence
+rather than to have resorted to such fanatical means, they would have
+represented a great power at the next election. As things are, I admit
+that their cause is lost for the time. I believe that your uncle is
+contemplating an early visit to England. He is of the opinion that
+perhaps he has misunderstood the Allied point of view, and he is going
+to study matters at first hand."
+
+Pamela nodded.
+
+"I think he is very wise, aunt," she declared. "I quite expect that he
+will come back a warm advocate of the Allies. No one would have a ghost
+of a chance who went to the country here on the other ticket."
+
+"I believe that that is your uncle's point of view," Mrs. Hastings
+assented.... "Why don't you ask Mr. Lutchester down for a couple of
+days?"
+
+"If you mean it, I certainly will," Pamela agreed.
+
+"Quite incidentally," her aunt continued, "I heard the nicest possible
+things about him in Washington. Lady Ridlingshawe told me that the
+Lutchesters are one of the oldest families in England. He is a cousin
+of the Duke of Worcester, and is extraordinarily well connected in
+other directions. I must say he has a most distinguished appearance.
+A well-bred Englishman is so different from these foreigners."
+
+Pamela laid down her book and drew her writing block towards her.
+
+"I'll write and invite him down at once," she suggested.
+
+"Your uncle will be delighted," Mrs. Hastings purred....
+
+Lutchester received his invitation in New York and arrived in
+Manchester three days later. Pamela met him at the station with a
+couple of boatmen by her side.
+
+"If you wouldn't mind sailing home?" she proposed. "The house is
+practically on an island, and the tide is just right. These men will
+take your luggage."
+
+They walked down to the little dock together.
+
+Pamela talked all the time, but Lutchester was curiously tongue-tied.
+
+"You'll find Uncle Theodore, and aunt, too, most amusing," she
+confided. "It is perfectly obvious that there is nothing uncle regrets
+so much as his temporary linking up with Fischer and his friends; in
+fact, he is going to Europe almost at once--I am convinced for no other
+reason than to give him an excuse, upon his return, for blossoming out
+as a fervent supporter of the Allies."
+
+"Are you going too?" Lutchester inquired. "Shall I? Well, I am not
+really sure," she declared, as they reached the little wooden dock. "I
+suppose I shall, especially if I can find something to do. I may even
+turn nurse."
+
+"You will be able to find plenty to do," he assured her. "If nothing
+else turns up, you can help me."
+
+They stepped on to the yacht. Pamela, a radiant vision in white, with
+white flannel skirt, white jersey and tam-o'-shanter, took the helm,
+and was busy for a few moments getting clear. Afterwards she leaned
+back amongst the cushions, with Lutchester by her side.
+
+"In the agitation of missing that buoy," he reminded her, "you forgot
+to answer my last suggestion."
+
+"Is there any way in which I could help you?" she asked.
+
+"You can help me in the greatest of all ways," he replied promptly.
+"You can give me just that help which only the woman who cares can give
+to the man who cares for her, and if that isn't exciting enough," he
+went on, after a moment's pause, "well, I dare say I can find you some
+work in the censor's department."
+
+"Isn't censoring a little dull?" she murmured.
+
+"Then you choose--"
+
+Her hand slipped into his. A little breeze filled their sails at that
+moment. The wonderful blue water of the bay sparkled with a million
+gleams of sunshine. Lutchester drew a great breath of content.
+
+"That's aunt on the landing-stage, watching us through her glasses,"
+Pamela pointed out, making a feeble attempt to withdraw her hand.
+
+"It will save us the trouble," he observed, resisting her effort, "of
+explanations."
+
+Lutchester found his host and hostess unexpectedly friendly. They even
+accepted with cheerful philosophy the news that Lutchester's work in
+America was almost finished for the time, and that Pamela was to
+accompany him to Europe almost immediately. After dinner, when the two
+men were left at the table, Hastings became almost confidential.
+
+"So far as regards the sympathies of this country, Mr. Lutchester," he
+said, "the final die has been cast within the last few weeks. There has
+always been," he proceeded, "a certain irritation existing between even
+the Anglo-Saxon Americans and your country. We have fancied so often
+that you have adopted little airs of superiority towards us, and that
+your methods of stating your intentions have not always taken account
+of our own little weaknesses. Then America, you know, loves a good
+fight, and the Germans are a wonderful military people. They were
+fighting like giants whilst you in England were still slacking. But it
+is Germany herself, or rather her sons and friends, who have destroyed
+her chances for her. Fischer, for instance," he went on, fingering his
+wineglass. "I have always looked upon Oscar Fischer as a brilliant and
+far-seeing man. He was one of those who set themselves deliberately to
+win America for the Germans. A more idiotic bungle than he has made of
+things I could scarcely conceive. He has reproduced the diplomatic
+methods which have made Germany unpopular throughout the world. He has
+tried bullying, cajolery, and false-hood, and last of all he has
+plunged into crime. No German-American will henceforth ever have weight
+in the counsels of this country. I do not mind confessing," Mr.
+Hastings continued, as he himself filled his guest's glass and then his
+own, "that I myself was at one time powerfully attracted towards the
+Teuton cause. They are a nation wonderful in science, wonderful in
+warfare, with strong and admirable national characteristics. Yet they
+are going to lose this war through sheer lack of tact, for the want of
+that kindliness, that generosity of temperament, which exists and makes
+friends in nations as in individuals. The world for Germany, you know,
+and hell for her enemies!... But I am keeping you."
+
+Lutchester drank his wine and rose to his feet.
+
+"Pamela is sitting on the rocks there," Mr. Hastings observed. "I think
+that she wants to sail you over to Misery Island. We get some unearthly
+meal there at ten o'clock and come back by moonlight. It is a sort of
+torture which we always inflict upon our guests. My wife and I will
+follow in the launch."
+
+"To Misery Island!" Lutchester repeated.
+
+His host smiled as he led the way to the piazza steps. Pamela had
+already stepped into the boat, and with the help of a boatman was
+adjusting the sail. She waved her hand gaily and pointed to the level
+stretch of placid water, still faintly brilliant in the dying sunlight.
+
+"You think that we shall reach Misery Island before the tide turns?"
+she called out.
+
+Lutchester stepped lightly into the boat and took the place to which
+she pointed.
+
+"I am content," he said, "to take my chance."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Pawns Count, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
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