Front matter (continued 4)

"What can we do then?"

"I am still confident that all will come right if we can only get time enough. And time we must have at any risk and cost."

"There is always one way open," she said hesitatingly. "At least I presume so. Do you think if I were to agree to do what Herr von Felsen requires, that he could still obtain my father's pardon?"

"Would you do it, if I did think so?"

"What else can I do?" she cried distractedly.

"For one thing--keep a stout heart and have patience. I do not pretend that your father's arrival here and his visit to the Jew's house has not seriously complicated matters; but you may still have a little grain of trust in me."

"As if I had not! But the thought of the danger you are----" She broke off as if she had been about to say something that might have been embarrassing. "Of course I trust you," she added after the pause.

"That is all I ask--at present, at all events, until that last resource you spoke of need no longer be contemplated. And now, let us have this talk with your father."

She put out her hand impulsively, and as I pressed it our eyes met. No other word was spoken, but I think she understood much of what I should have said had not my lips been sealed.

The interview with the Baron was a curious mixture of pathos and burlesque. The pain which I could see Althea was suffering cut me to the quick, and I sought to shorten the conversation as much as possible. But her father was so full of his own importance, so talkative about his wrongs, so insistent upon my complete obedience to his orders, so obviously unable to take a rational view of any part of the subject, and so incapable of understanding the risks and dangers of the position, that it was a long time before we could drive it home upon him that the only hope of success lay in his leaving everything to me.

"But your very presence in Berlin is a danger," said Althea more than once when we were attempting to persuade him to leave the city.

"No one knows of it, child. And I have not done anything if they did. Beside, would you have me, the leader of the whole movement, shirk the danger now that the hour has come?"

"It may get to be known that you were at Herr Ziegler's house last night."

"I went to prevent violence, child. That is surely no crime."

"And you are placing Herr Bastable in danger by remaining here."

"Is it not his duty to run risks in the cause? Is he to be the only man to venture nothing for our country? Danger, indeed," he cried indignantly. "Have we not all suffered? What of my own sufferings?" and he was off again on his favourite topic when I interrupted him.

"Have you any commands in regard to the forthcoming attack?"

"Ah, that will be a stroke; and it is my own conception"; and as the wind will turn a straw, he went off to the fresh subject and spoke at length about it.

It appeared that a new cruiser, the Wundervoll, had just been launched; and the intention was to wreck her as she lay waiting to be taken to be fitted up. The bomb which, thank Heaven, lay at the bottom of the Spree was to do the mischief, and the exact details of the plan as to time and means were to be discussed and settled at a forthcoming meeting of some of the more reckless men of the party.

A very little ingenuity succeeded in extracting from him the place of the meeting--a house on the riverside which had been taken by them, ostensibly for some business purposes. But the time of the meeting he did not appear to know.

"I shall learn that in due course. They cannot move without me; for I trust no one but myself with the means. But it will not be yet for some days."

"Do you mean then, father, that some one else knows you are here?" asked Althea in a tone of alarm, with a glance in my direction.

"Could I lead them without their being able to communicate with me? You are foolish, Althea. Did they not prepare this shelter for me?"

"Oh, it is terrible," she murmured with a deep sigh.

"It will be glorious, you should say rather, child," he replied, with a wild look in his eyes. "The greatest blow which we have yet been able to strike at the oppressors of our country!"

"I will go and see what is doing," I put in as I rose. "I will report to you the results of my inquiries, and you will of course do nothing without first hearing them, and without my aid. You would not rob me of my share in the coming victory?"

"Bring me word instantly," he said in a tone of sharp command. "And I wish to see Sudermann and Bolinsk to consult with them. See them and bring them here to me at once."

"It would not be safe for them to be seen coming here. My house is too well known for them to take such a risk."

"See them then and tell them---- Wait, I will write you a letter." He turned aside and wrote rapidly, and in the meantime Althea looked at me with an expression of such pain and concern that I was almost ashamed of the deception I was practising.

"Here is the note. 'The bearer, Herr Bastable, has my fullest confidence and knows my wishes. Consult with him freely.' That will satisfy them, if they should have any doubt about speaking frankly to you."

"Oh, but they will not," I answered confidently; and with that I left the room.

As I went downstairs I was about to tear up the letter, when it occurred to me as a possibility that it might be of use in any future case of emergency, so I put it carefully away.

Then I set to work to think out some means of inducing the Baron to leave Berlin, by using my supposed influence in the party. If I could tell him a plausible story to the effect that the attempt had had to be postponed for a few weeks and that the authorities had got wind of it, he might go. And for Althea's sake, as well as for our own, I was intensely anxious to get him away.

As I sat planning this a letter was brought to me from Herr Borsen.

"MY DEAR BASTABLE,--

"Can you come and see me? I understand that you have another visitor in your house, and it is about that I should like a few words with you. I wish to be able to contradict a strange report which has reached me concerning him; since, if uncontradictcd, it might be a somewhat serious matter for you. Any time to-morrow will do, but not later.

"Yours as ever."

If I had been wishful for the Baron to go before, the letter turned the wish into a strenuous anxiety.

It looked very much like the beginning of the end.

CHAPTER XVII

"W. MISCHEN'S" WAREHOUSE

When I read Borsen's letter through the second time, I thought I could detect a little more in it than appeared on the surface. "Any time to-morrow will do, but not later," he wrote; and he had dated his note "midday."

I judged therefore that he was really stretching a point in order to give me time to get my visitor away, and so be able to "contradict the report." There was plenty of time for him to have seen me that afternoon: the obvious course in the case of a matter so really serious. But he had given me the interval to afford me the time to free myself from suspicion.

He was a very good fellow, and had at one time been very friendly with me; but there was something besides friendship behind his present step. I had convinced him in Chalice's matter that I was likely to succeed as well with Althea; and being a negotiator with a preference for the path of least resistance, he preferred that I should have the time to pull that chestnut out of the fire for him rather than that he should have to do it himself.

There was a still further reason. The presence of Baron von Ringheim in Berlin was likely to be more than a little embarrassing to Count von Felsen's scheme for his son. They knew perfectly well that he would only venture to come to the capital for some such purpose as that which had actually brought him; and if he were to be taken at such a juncture and under such suspicious circumstances, the Kaiser's promise of a pardon was pretty sure to be withdrawn.

Borsen was thus turning the screw on me to force me to take the steps which they greatly desired and could not take for themselves.

I determined to put this to the test at once, therefore, with a little bluff, I scribbled a hasty line to the effect that I could go round immediately, if he wished; but that on the following day I should probably be going on a journey with a friend.

I intended him to infer that I should be taking the Baron out of the city. He read the letter in that light; and sent back word that he was going away at once, and that under the circumstances the next day but one would do well enough for the purpose.

I had a respite of twenty-four hours. I told Althea what had passed, and that I could not possibly face Borsen unless in the meanwhile we could prevail upon her father to leave the city, and I described my rough idea of getting him away by a fairy-tale about the discovery of the plot.

Partly with the object of being able to give colour to the story, and partly out of a desire to ascertain something more about the doings of the Baron's associates, I went down to the riverside to have a look at their headquarters.

I was extremely anxious about his account of the intended attempt to wreck the Wundervoll, and resolved of course to prevent it. The whole Empire was in one of those flushes of feeling about the navy which the Emperor's policy had created; and I knew that such an outrage would incense the authorities, and that the punishment meted out would be in proportion to their wrath.

Directly or indirectly, some of that demand for vengeance would fall on Althea as well as on myself--if it became generally known that I had sheltered one of the chief perpetrators--and I had to find the means of secretly preventing so disastrous a result.

The riverside premises looked harmless enough. The name, "W. Mischen," had been newly painted up, and a suggestion that a corn business was being carried on there was evidenced by some sacks of grain.

The office was open, and I could see one man inside, lounging idly at a desk, obviously with nothing to do. But the moment he heard my step and caught sight of me, he began to work on a big ledger with over-acted activity.

I resolved to risk going in. The adjoining premises were to let, so I used that as an excuse and asked him if he could tell me anything about them. A very few questions convinced me that he was a Berliner who had probably been engaged as a clerk to give a cover to the fictitious business.

Under the pretext of a desire to see whether the water front would suit my purposes--I was a wharfinger for the moment--I got him to show me over the premises. I found, of course, that the place would not suit me.

"Some one appears to be very busy over there," I said, pointing a little way down the river where a number of men in boats were at work.

"They are dockyard men laying down moorings. They have all but finished now. I believe the Wundervoll is to be moored there for a while. Have you seen her? A splendid ship she'll be when she's fitted. I am a big navy man. We shall never be safe until we have a fleet as big as England's."

"It will come in time," I replied; and we went inside again. I saw the reason for the wharf now; and wondered how they had succeeded in getting wind of the Government's intention so early.

"I am really very much obliged to you," I said as we stood again in the office. "You seem rather short-handed too, so I mustn't take up your time."

"Oh, I haven't much to do yet. The firm is only just starting here. This is to be only the Berlin branch; the business is at Hamburg, you know. I wish I had more to do; but of course it takes a lot of time to get things going."

I thanked him again and left. I was well repaid for the visit. The scheme had been shrewdly planned. When the vessel lay within so short a distance of the wharf, the attack would be comparatively easy, and success quite attainable. A bomb with a time fuse attached could easily be thrown on board her.

How could I prevent it? That was the rub. I went up to the Press Club thinking this out.

If I could have been certain that the bomb which I had thrown into the river was really that which was to be used, I should almost have been willing to let the matter rest where it was, for I had already prevented disaster.

But a little further consideration almost made my flesh creep. The bomb I had given the Baron would do no harm to the vessel, but it might very well blow me into prison. It would be found, of course; inquiries would follow, and the obliging young man who had made it for me, "for private theatricals," would give a description of me and an account of the transaction which I should be unable to explain away; while the agreeable fellow at the wharf would be able to tell how I had gone down to "inquire about the untenanted premises."

That wouldn't do; so with a curse at the Baron and all his works--except paternity of Althea--I turned to think of some other plan.

There was only one way. I must get such information to the authorities as would induce them to choose some other moorings for the warship. And I must do it at once.

My old press connexions must find the means. There were plenty of German newspaper men who would have given their ears for such a story as I could tell them; but I could not trust them to hold their tongues as to the source of the information. And that was of course essential.

The story must come from London, or better, from Paris; and the only man I dared to trust in the matter was Bassett--the correspondent who had taken my place. I telephoned him to come to me at the club, and when he arrived I told him as much of the case as was necessary.

I explained that I had stumbled on the information by chance, but in a manner which rendered it impossible for my name to be mentioned. He was anxious enough to get a "scoop," and readily promised to keep my connexion absolutely secret. Together we drew up such a paragraph as would set the ball rolling, and he agreed to warn the naval authorities in his own name that the object of attack was the Wundervoll, and that her safety depended upon her not being taken to the proposed moorings.

It was a common enough thing for newspaper men to get hold of information a long way ahead of the authorities, and for the sources of it to be kept secret.

"I'll hold my tongue about you, of course," he said as we were parting. "And I'm awfully obliged to you. It's just what I want, as a matter of fact. The navy people here have been awfully close with me and standoffish, and this will put matters on just the footing I need."

I went home in a well satisfied mood. One of the many tangles was unravelled. There would be no outrage of any sort; and for my own protection I must get that bogus bomb back into my own hands as soon as possible. That was almost as essential as getting the Baron away.

But I found trouble waiting for me at home. The Baron had gone to bed ill, and Althea was at her wits-end to know whether she dared call in a doctor. I went up with her to his room, and found him apparently very bad indeed. He looked very ill, and had been complaining of intense pain.

To move him was clearly impossible, even if he had been willing to go away.

"For his own sake we must do without a doctor if we can," I told her.

"I thought he was going to die a little time ago, but he appears to be easier now. I did not know what to do for the best," she replied as she bent over him and smoothed his pillows and kissed him.

"After Borsen's letter I meant to get him to leave the city. Every hour after to-morrow will be one of danger for him."

Unfortunately he heard this, and between his gasps and groans of pain he abused me for a traitor and ordered me out of the room. I did not pay any heed at first, but it soon became evident that my presence excited him so much that Althea begged me to go.

His illness was checkmate so far as getting him out of the house for the present was concerned; and as that was all important, I deemed it best to take the additional risk of having a doctor to get him well enough to travel.

While I was still considering this, Althea came down, and I told her.

"Not yet," she said decidedly. "I think he is better again. He raved almost deliriously after you had left the room; that you and all of us in fact were bent upon betraying the cause, and that if any attempt were made to get him out of the city he would---- Oh, he talked most wildly. What can we do, Mr. Bastable? I am so grieved that I have brought all this on you."

"I told you before that we would not go out to look for trouble. After all, it may end in nothing serious. We have all to-morrow; and it will be quite time enough if he goes then."

"You try to make so light of it, but----" She broke off and threw up her hands.

"We shall have plenty of time to worry when the need comes, if it is to come," I answered with a smile. "You will be ill yourself if you are not more careful."

"The excitement has worn him out so that he is sleeping a little now," she said. "I dare not leave him for long; but I felt I must come down to you for a minute."

"It may be the beginning of an improvement. Of course there is one way in which we might venture to move him."

"How?"

"A sleeping draught, and take him away as an invalid."

But she shook her head vigorously at the suggestion.

"I dare not. His heart is so weak, he might die under it."

"That closes that door then"; and I endeavoured to make her feel that I refused to take things too seriously.

There was a slight pause during which she glanced at me twice nervously and said hesitatingly: "There is another way if you will take it."

"Not the last resource, yet. It has not come to that by a long way."

"No. I--I mean--you ought to think of Bessie. I wish that. You must."

"Do you mean she should go away? I am afraid she would not care to go. I wish she would."

"But you--you might take her."

"Althea!" The Christian name slipped from me unwittingly in my quick protest against the suggestion that I should desert her. I stopped in confusion, and the colour rushed to her face. We were both embarrassed by the blunder.

Presently she raised her eyes to mine. "Please do it. I wish it," she urged in a low, intensely earnest tone.

"Do you believe it possible?"

"If you care at all for what I say or wish, you will do it."

"Then I am afraid we must take it that I do not," I answered, smiling.

"But if Bessie were only safely away, I should not mind so much."

"She is not in any serious danger. They would not do anything to her."

"You know what I mean," she cried quickly. "Why force me to say it? I cannot bear the thought of bringing you into this danger. The fear of what may happen haunts me every moment, day and night. You must go."

"You are letting your fears exaggerate the danger. I cannot go."

"You must. I insist." Quite vehemently uttered, this.

"Don't force me to the discourtesy of a flat refusal."

Her earnestness was only magnified. "You shall go. I am quite determined. You shall go or----" Her eyes were flashing and her features set with resolve.

"I am just as determined as you."

She paused and then said very deliberately, but with lips that quivered: "If you do not, I shall go to Herr von Felsen and accept his terms. I will not accept the sacrifice which you are intent on making for me."

There was a pause while we looked one at the other, every line of her lovely face eloquent of her purpose; and before I could reply, we were face to face with another crisis that drove everything else out of our thoughts for the moment.

Believing that I was alone, Ellen opened the door and announced Herr Dormund.

I had just time to whisper to Althea, "You had better be Bessie, remember," when he came in bristling with importance. He paused on seeing that I was not alone, and I went forward and offered him my hand. "Come in, Herr Dormund. It is only my sister. Then you'll see to that for me, Bessie; and don't let me have to bother again about it."

Dormund had bowed when I referred to her and then turned to me with a very significant look. "I have not yet had the pleasure of being presented to--your sister."

"I clean forgot. Pardon. Bessie, Herr Dormund. You have often heard me speak of him."

She was close to the door and turned to give him a gracious bow. Would he let her go? I watched him very anxiously.

"I have had the pleasure of meeting you once before, Fräulein--at the station a day or two ago," he said. "I am delighted to see you again."

She was at a loss for a reply, so I cut in: "Run and see to that at once, Bess; and then perhaps when Herr Dormund has finished his business you can return."

He did let her go; so I gathered that Feldermann had passed on to him the instructions from Borsen.

And very fortunate it was. For just as the door closed behind her, I heard Bessie's voice calling loudly and with some alarm: "Althea! Althea!" followed by the voices of the two as they met.

"Then you have two sisters, Herr Bastable?" said Dormund very drily as he turned with a very meaning look. "It is a coincidence that the name of one of them should be Althea."

"'Tis odd, isn't it?" and forcing a smile, as though it was a coincidence and nothing more, I motioned him to a chair, sat down, and pushed the cigar-box across to him.

It should be his move first at any rate.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE LUCK TURNS

My assumption of indifference appealed to what little sense of humour the German police routine training had allowed Dormund to retain, for he burst into a quite human laugh as he lighted a cigar. "Need we pretend any longer, Herr Bastable?" he asked.

"Not unless you like," I replied, as grave as a judge. "But what about?"

"The very charming young lady who has just left us."

"Bessie? My sister, I mean," I said, as if genuinely perplexed.

He waved his hand impatiently. "Ah, her name is von Ringheim. We know that."

I clapped my hands to the arms of my chair and started forward as if intensely surprised. "Do you mean that my sister has got married without my knowledge? For Heaven's sake, what are you saying?"

He gave me a dry look. "You are overdoing it, Herr Bastable. I mean that the lady who has just gone out is Fräulein Korper, otherwise von Ringheim. Is that clear?"

"Oh," I said with a sigh of relief. "Is that all? Then why the devil didn't you arrest her?"

The blunt question drew another laugh out of him. "I need not tell you, for you know. So long as we are certain where to find her---- But Herr Feldermann told you. I have not come on her affairs, however; nor to refer to what happened the other day at the station."

"I am always delighted to see you--provided of course you don't come to arrest me."

"I trust I shall never have to do that, but you will do well to be cautious in your hospitality."

"Not with you, I hope," I laughed. "At all events unofficially."

"I am here unofficially now, and will go so far as to warn you that an official visit from one of us has been very seriously considered. Berlin, and indeed the whole of Germany, is considered very unhealthy for some foreigners at this season, you know."

"I appreciate your friendship, Dormund; but I shan't bolt. I shall be found here whenever I'm wanted. I shall stick it out."

"It is more serious than you think perhaps; but it is of course for you to decide. Well, now, I have come to-day to act the part of a mutual friend, Heir Bastable; from Lieutenant von Bernhoff. He feels very deeply the breach that has occurred."

"I think I would rather you did not say any more about that," I broke in.

"Bear with me a moment. He is devotedly attached to your sister and he has a genuine regard for you yourself; he has empowered me to offer you an unqualified apology for what passed when he was last here, and to assure you that you placed quite the wrong interpretation on what he said. He is very unhappy."

"Do you know what passed?"

"It was very unfortunate," he replied with a gesture of regret. "But remember, please, the feelings of a man who sees himself about to lose what he prizes more than anything else on earth. A man in love, you know!"

"But my sister does not return his regard."

"He wishes only to be allowed to call and make his apologies for himself. I can assure you, of my own knowledge, that his regret is abject."

"There is good ground for it," I said drily. "And his coming here would do no good. I don't believe he ever had a ghost of a chance of getting my sister to care for him and am dead certain that whatever chance he had was absolutely ruined by his conduct that day."

"Well, may he come? Let me put it as a personal favour to me?"

I hesitated a second. "I can't refuse you; but it is for your sake not for his that I consent; and he had better not come for a few days."

"In the meantime you will speak to your sister and tell her of his regrets and perhaps say a word----"

"No, no," I interrupted, shaking my head. "In England we let our girls settle these matters entirely for themselves. But I'll tell her what you have told me."

"Well, I have not failed entirely at any rate," he said as he rose. "And now will you accept a last word of caution, and get rid of your visitors."

Plural number, this time. He apparently knew all about the presence of Althea's father. "I am going to," I answered with a smile.

"I am unfeignedly glad. You have many friends among us, you know."

"I am seeing Herr Borsen about it the day after to-morrow."

"Good; but don't forget that even his hands may be forced"; and with this parting caution he went away to leave me pondering very uneasily what could be behind the words.

Was his warning genuine or was it a veiled threat? Had he come as von Bernhoff's friend to force the reconciliation with this as his weapon? The events of the last few days had so tried me, that I was suspicious of almost every one with whom I came in contact who had any concern with the affair. It was possible that he meant von Bernhoff could make such a to do as to force the police to act despite Borsen's promise. Yet he had seemed genuine enough.

There was of course another interpretation--that some influence could be brought to bear strong enough to force even Borsen. Whose? The Emperor's? No. I had made that right with Chalice's letter. Could it be the Prince von Graven in his rage at my interference? No. He might have the intention but he lacked the power.

There was only one man left--von Felsen himself. He could do it through his father, if he could persuade him that I was blocking the scheme and not, as Borsen believed, seeking to carry it through.

But Dormund would know nothing about this unless--and at that moment the light began to break in--unless certain steps had already been taken of which Dormund's colleagues had spoken to him.

If it was only that, I had little reason for fear. A word or two from me and von Felsen would come crawling to heel at my beck. The sooner that word was spoken the better, perhaps; and I decided to speak it at once.

I told Althea and Bessie the result of Dormund's visit and then went straight off to interview von Felsen. I did not find him, however; he was at his father's house, the servant told me, and would not return until very late.

I was very disappointed. So much depended upon the result of the interview, and Dormund had made me feel what danger there was in delay, that I was exceedingly anxious to bring the fellow to his knees at once.

There was, moreover, the almost equally critical matter of the papers he was to secure--the act which I believed would put the card I needed into my hand--and I was at my wits' end to think of some means by which I could discover what was being done in the matter.

When I had reduced him to a proper condition of terror by the threat of charging him with the Jew's murder, I intended to force from him the necessary information. But I could not do anything with him in that matter at his father's house. If he had the papers already, they would be at his own house; and thus for my purposes the interview must take place there.

I could not do anything more that night, however, and I turned homewards in none too amiable a mood. The luck had appeared to go so dead against me, and I was trying to hit on some way to change it, when I blundered into a man hurrying in the direction from which I had come. I looked up with a growl on my lips at his carelessness, when I recognized the young clerk I had seen at the wharf.

"I am sure I beg your pardon," I said. "I was thinking. It was my fault."

He had a very pleasant smile. "Really I'm afraid it was mine. I was looking about for the name of the street. I don't know this part of the city at all well. This is the Coursenstrasse, isn't it?"

"Yes. What number do you want?"

"268d," he replied looking at an adjoining house door.

It was the number of von Felsen's house! What did "W. Mischen" want with him? I became very friendly at once. "I'll show it you"; and I turned with him. "I have nothing to do; and it's very curious, I wanted to have a chat with you."

I would not risk going up with him to the door, lest the servant should report the fact to von Felsen; but I waited for him, standing near enough to observe that he delivered a message and not a letter.

What that message was I would learn before the night was out by hook or crook; and when he rejoined me I led the way to a restaurant, and insisted on his joining me at supper. I did him well; a good meal, plenty of the best wine, and a cigar such as he rarely smoked. While we were eating I spun him a yarn about my intention to start a big wharfinger's business, asked his advice about a heap of things, flattered his judgment, and worked him into a properly loquacious mood.

I then sounded him as to whether he would care to enter my employ, and named a salary about three times as big as he had any reason to expect, with light hours and so on, and in this way worked round to an expression of surprise that he should have to stop so late at work.

It was very plain sailing then. He did not always work so late, he said; but he had been asked to stay that night until one of the heads of his present firm arrived from the lawyers', where he had been engaged in regard to the lease of the wharf.

"There was really no reason why they should have kept me; but I am never afraid of an extra hour or two, of course." This was for my benefit as his future employer.

"Of course they will pay you. When I detain one of my clerks I always do what is proper, especially when the business is important."

"This wasn't. Only a trifle about the lease of the wharf. Herr von Felsen is the owner of it, you know, and he was to have delivered it to-night; but something came in the way. All I had to do after all, was to take a message that they would call for it to-morrow night at eight o'clock."

"Well, I am glad they did detain you as it turns out"; and I poured him out a last glass of wine. I was indeed glad, but the reason was not quite so much on the surface as his smile showed me he thought.

"I suppose the gentleman you have been to is a very wealthy man, then?"

"Oh yes, they tell me he owns no end of property. What luck some people have!"

As I knew that von Felsen hadn't a single brick or plank to call his own, I put my own construction on the story about the "lease"; and as I had got all I wanted from the clerk, I brought the interview to a close soon afterwards, having taken his address and given him to understand that he would hear more from me soon.

The incident was a piece of such stupendous luck that I could scarcely believe in my good fortune. If all went well, I should be too firmly seated in saddle within twenty-four hours for any one to be able to unhorse me. That "lease" meant the stolen papers; and with them in my hands I could laugh at every other difficulty. And that I could drag then from von Felsen by my knowledge of his guilt I was certain.

And the vein of good luck was not exhausted with that one precious nugget.

Althea came to me the first thing in the morning looking so white and troubled that I was full of concern. "Your father is not worse?" I asked quickly.

"No. He is better, much better; but he will not think of leaving the city. He will not listen to me when I urge it."

"It does not matter so much now," I said cheerfully.

"Ah, but it does. The trouble is greater than ever. Read this. It was brought to the house this morning"; and she handed me a letter.

"Addressed to you in your own name," I exclaimed, glancing at the envelope. Then I read the letter. It was from von Felsen. He said that he knew the Baron was in the house; that my arrest had been decided upon for having sheltered him; and that her father's presence with others at the Jew's house on the night of the murder was known. He concluded: "You must give me your decision to-day, and upon your decision every one of the steps I have mentioned will depend. If you are not my wife by to-night, the word will be spoken, and everything will be too late. Meanwhile Herr Bastable's house is being watched closely. I shall come this afternoon for your answer."

"You see now?" cried Althea in dismay, as I stood thinking over the letter. "I shall do it, Mr. Bastable. It is the only way."

"It depends upon when and where he means the marriage to take place," I answered, speaking out of my thoughts rather than in reply to her words.

"You agree that I should do it?" she asked almost piteously.

We were standing at the moment opposite a large mirror, and as I looked by chance at our reflections a thought struck me. I turned to her with a smile. "I think, perhaps, you will have to agree to his terms."

"You smile at this?" she cried, not without a touch of indignation.

"God forbid that I should smile at anything threatening your whole life as this would do. I must think; but if you can bring yourself to consent, you must make your own conditions as to the time and place of the marriage."

"And this is all you have to say?"

"No. The marriage will not take place, because he dare do nothing against my will. Don't lose heart for an instant."

"Tell me. You must see what it means to me, this suspense. You are in such danger--and Bessie."

"We were never safer. That I assure you. But trust me and have patience."

"You know I trust you"; and she laid her hand on my arm.

"Yes, I do know it. And bear this in mind. I am absolutely confident that we shall win. Remember that, and if you see me appear to be alarmed, and even panic-stricken, don't believe what you see."

She let her eyes rest on mine. "I should never believe that," she said.

At that moment Bessie said her father was calling for her, and we parted.

I took my sister to my room and had a long talk with her, and in the end sent her out to make one or two purchases for the plan that had occurred to me, telling her to be very careful that she was not followed. I should have gone myself, but after von Felsen's statement that the house was being carefully watched, she could do what had to be done better than I could.

When she returned, we two were busy together for two or three hours, at the end of which we had a little rehearsal.

"It is positively wonderful, Paul! Wonderful!"

"It will do in the dark, anyhow," I replied, quite satisfied with the result. "Say nothing to Althea about it; but if you can manage it, drop her a hint that I have had very bad news. It is so essential she should act naturally when von Felsen comes, that I must even venture to frighten her a little."

I would not trust myself to see Althea herself again before von Felsen's visit, lest I should be led to tell her everything in my desire to relieve her anxiety. So much depended upon his being entirely deceived, that I dared not take the risk of her not being able to appear completely sincere in what she had to promise.

It was a hard task to mislead her even for so short a time; and twenty times I started off to relieve the suspense I knew was torturing her. But I did not go.

Then von Felsen arrived. He asked openly for Fräulein von Ringheim, and by my orders Ellen showed him into my room. He was a very different man from the shaken reed he had been when I had interviewed him at the club on the night of the Jew's murder. He was now self-confident, resolved, and sure of himself on the strength of the cards he held.

On the other hand I endeavoured to express alarm and genuine apprehension.

"It is no use your denying that Fräulein Althea is here, Herr Bastable. I know it and the police know it. I shan't go without seeing her."

"What are you going to do?" I asked, letting my eyes fall before his.

"That all depends on what she does. You have made a holy mess of things in your cleverness. Your house is watched by the police, and you can't escape. If things go wrong, you'll have to answer for having had the Baron here. I know he's here, too."

"You are not going to play on a woman's fears about her father, are you?" A spice of mild indignation in this. "As for me, you can't harm me."

"Harm you? Can't I?" he cried with a snort of anger. "Perhaps you'll change your tone when I tell you, on my honour----"

"Never mind your honour," I cut in with a sneer which had the intended effect of adding anger to his bluster.

"When I leave this house I shall only have to hold up my finger and the lot of you will be inside the nearest gaol as quickly as you can be taken there by the police--you and Althea and her father and your sister too. You are all in this, you know. And if you provoke me, by Heaven I'll do it at once."

I did not reply but sat looking down at the table in intense dismay.

"Now are you going to deny that she is in the house?" he cried triumphantly after a pause.

"No, I don't deny it." The words seemed to be wrung from me, and I continued my stare of dismay at the table.

"I thought that would bring you to your senses. Where is she?"

"I'll take you up to her;" and I rose.

"No, thank you. I don't want you," he declared with a short laugh.

I sat down again. "I must think all this over," I murmured with a sigh of concern. "She's in the drawing-room, the room at the top of the stairs."

"I'll find it right enough, you bet." He went to the door and then turned for a last shot. "You understand, Bastable, if she says no, you'll all sleep in gaol to-night."

I let my head sink on my hand, and with a last leer of satisfaction he went out.

My only fear was lest I had overdone it; but he was anything but a keen observer, and was himself a man of exaggerated gesture.

I waited a few minutes to give him time to put his cowardly proposition to Althea and then, having rumpled my hair a bit to give the appearance of intense perturbation, I followed to add my plea to his--that Althea should agree to marry him.

It was, as she had said, the only way; but in furtherance of my plans instead of his.

CHAPTER XIX

VON FELSEN GAINS HIS END

I entered the room just when matters had reached the crisis. Althea, very pale and troubled, was sitting near the window and von Felsen stood over her dictating his terms. He had wrought upon her fears until she was on the point of yielding.

He resented my interference, therefore, fearing lest I should cause her to change her mind, and he turned on me angrily. "There is no need for you to come here, Herr Bastable. You can do no good."

"I could not keep away. So much depends upon Fräulein Althea's decision that I must know it at once." I spoke like one distracted with doubt.

A gloating, boastful, confident smile, for which I could have kicked him, was his reply.

Althea shuddered at it and then turned to me. "What else can I do, Mr. Bastable?"

I flung up my hands and sighed distractedly. "This cannot be necessary. Herr von Felsen must give us a little time in which to think. I have still influence, and I must go and see what I can do."

"If you leave the house it will be to go straight to prison," he declared with a sneer.

Althea winced again at this. "You see, I must do it."

"You coward," I cried to him. Then I started as if an idea had just occurred to me. "I can stop you. I had forgotten. You are pledged to marry Fräulein Ziegler. She shall know of this at once"; and I turned as if to hurry from the room.

"Stop," he shouted. "Leave this room and that instant I will call in those outside."

I stopped obediently, as if baffled and frightened. Then I gave another little start and shot a furtive, cunning glance at him.

"You said just now you didn't want me in the room," I said slowly.

He looked at me very searchingly. "You stop here. I can read your thought easily enough, but you won't fool me. Neither you nor any one here will leave this house until Fräulein Althea is my wife. Understand that."

I did not reply, but sat down and began to finger my moustache, moving my eyes about as if thinking of some means to outwit him. "We shall see," I said with a repetition of the cunning smile.

"Mr. Bastable!" said Althea, in a tone of appeal.

"No, no, no. There must be some other way. I am not afraid for myself." Then I laughed. "If we are not to leave the house then, there shall be no marriage. There shall be none here, that I swear. Let come what may, there shall not. You are driving me to bay, von Felsen. Have a care, man, what you do." I spoke without passion, but the suggestion of threat in my tone drew his eyes upon me and started his suspicions.

Althea was completely puzzled by my conduct, and I was glad to see that. If I could mislead her, after what I had said that morning, I was sure to be successful with the grosser wits of von Felsen.

"Herr von Felsen has proposed that the marriage shall take place here this evening, and it--it must be so," she said after a pause.

"No, no, it shall not," I cried quickly; and then as quickly, and with apparent inconsistency, changed my note. I clenched my hands and shot a glance of intense malevolence at him. "Wait. I agree. Yes. Come here this evening then. On second thoughts it will be best so. I'll see that everything is ready for you then. Yes, yes, this evening and--here."

He read this as I wished. "No, thank you," he answered with a knowing shake of the head. "I'm glad you reminded me in time. We'll have it where it will be a little safer. I shall have to trouble you to come to my house, Althea. I've no intention to have the marriage wind up with a funeral"; and he nodded again at me with a chuckle at having so cleverly read my thought.

I endeavoured to portray the picture of outwitted cunning. "Oh, you needn't be afraid of coming here; and it will be much more convenient."

"You mind your own business," he blurted out.

"If the thing has to be done at all, it should at least be done with the least trouble to Fräulein Althea. That means here," I protested.

"There will be plenty of trouble if it isn't done," came the retort with a bullying smile. "Now, please, Althea, your answer?"

Her face was a mask of troubled perplexity as she pressed her hands tightly together. She shot a look of appeal at me.

"You needn't look at him. He can't help you."

I jumped up with a heavy sigh, made as if to rush out of the room, remembered myself, and went to the window and stared out. Von Felsen laughed.

"I agree," said Althea in a low, trembling tone.

I groaned, and von Felsen laughed again. As if stung by the laugh to a last protest, I turned round. "How do you know that this man will keep his word?" I cried desperately to Althea. "He hates me, and his first step when all is too late may be to betray me."

"I thought you didn't care about yourself," he sneered. That I should be in a condition of abject fear about myself appeared natural enough to him, no doubt.

"Fräulein Althea!" I exclaimed, as she did not reply at once.

"He has pledged his word, Herr Bastable."

"His word! what is that worth?"

"You needn't let yourself be scared out of your wits, at any rate," he said with another sneer. He was enjoying his triumph intensely, and the sight of my fear was the best part of it, apparently. "If the Baron and Althea are pardoned, who's going to hurt you? You'll be all right," he declared contemptuously.

"I'm not thinking of myself," I replied vaingloriously, but putting a note of relief into my voice. "But there's the rest of his promise."

"Are you a fool? Do you think I am likely to let my wife be prosecuted as a traitor? You know what Herr Borsen told you. You are only trying to deceive Althea by this rot."

"Your wife? But she will not be your wife when she leaves here. Have the marriage here, as you proposed at first. There will be some guarantee then that you mean to run straight."

"The marriage will be where I say," he answered angrily.

"It must be as he wishes, Mr. Bastable. What do you wish?" she asked him.

"I shall come for you at seven o'clock." I gave a start at this, and he turned on me sharply. "No, I shan't be fool enough to enter the house, thank you. I shall wait for you in the carriage, Althea; and if a single soul except you attempts to leave at the same time, there'll be trouble. That's all."

"A very gallant groom," I sneered. But Althea interposed with a gesture of protest. "There are some hours of grace yet," I muttered.

"And the house will be carefully watched all through those hours. Don't forget that. I shan't run any risks. I shall be here at seven then," he added to Althea, and moved toward the door.

I started as if to follow him, but he stopped me. I believe he was afraid I should shoot him.

"You stop here, thank you. I can find my way out as I found it in."

I fell back a step as if frightened, and he left us.

"Oh, Mr. Bastable," cried Althea, the instant his back was turned, almost overcome by the scene.

I put my fingers to my lips, I thought he might linger a while to listen.

"He has us at every turn. My God, I shall go mad, I believe," I cried in a voice loud enough to reach him if he were there; and I thought I could catch the sound of a chuckle outside.

A minute afterwards we heard the front door slammed, and I went out to be sure that he had really gone. Then I hurried back to Althea.

"Wasn't that just lovely?" I asked with a smile. "Don't look so frightened. I was afraid to tell you my plan for fear that if you had it in your thoughts you might not have been able to prevent his suspicions being aroused. You must forgive me that. Everything has gone splendidly."

"I don't understand in the least," she cried, in her infinite perplexity. "You agreed to it all."

"Did I not tell you not to believe your eyes if you saw me agree?"

"Tell me now, everything."

"Of course I will. Stand up here a moment." She came to me and we stood before the mirror. "Once before, this morning, we were standing together just as we are now and I happened to look in that glass. It suggested a thought. See if anything is suggested to you."

She looked and turned to me as she shook her head. "I don't understand in the least."

"You are a tall girl and I am not a very tall man, so that our height is nearly the same. You are broad-shouldered for a girl; I am the reverse for a man. If I were dressed as you are, the difference would be imperceptible."

"But I am dark and you are fair--and your moustache!"

"Any sort of dark wig will alter the hair. Bessie bought one this morning. A razor will deal with the moustache. A touch or two on the eyebrows and a veil, fairly thick, will do the rest. I am going to borrow your dress for the evening's entertainment."

"Oh, Paul!" she cried, catching my arm, the name slipping out in her agitation.

I laid my hand on hers and took it gently into mine. She left it there.

"Did you really believe I would let you marry that brute? My dear, I would take his life first. This was all make-believe just now. I frightened him from having the marriage here--he thought I should kill him if he did--because it is necessary that I should be at his house to-night."

"But the danger to you?" she murmured.

"Is as straw to iron compared with the danger to him. To-day I could have spoken a word which would have brought him cringing to heel like the cur he is."

"Why didn't you?"

"Almost I spoke it, when he was blustering here. But I have a still better plan. Put away all your fears, and let me see a smile in place of all that pain and agitation. I tell you surely that by to-morrow all the clouds will have passed."

"I am only afraid for you," she whispered.

"And I--well, I will tell you when I have succeeded what other feeling than fear I have had about you in all this time."

Her answer was a smile, almost as if she knew.

For the moment the words trembled on my lips, but I pressed them back. We stood the while in silence.

"It has been so terrible that I can scarcely dare to hope," she murmured, her voice unsteady.

"Hope! For what, Althea?" I whispered.

She raised her head and our eyes met. All was clear to us both then.

"You may hope, Althea. I am sure."

Instinctively I stretched out my arm, and of herself she came to me and laid her head on my shoulder.

"You know what I have hoped, then?"

"Paul!" Just a sigh of happiness and full content.

"You love me? Ah, Althea!"

I lifted her head from my shoulders and took the sweet face between my hands, and then our lips met in the lingering ecstasy of love's first kiss.

"My dearest!" I whispered.

A little fluttering sigh of delight escaped her as her head was again pillowed on my shoulder; and in that realm of love's entrancing bliss we remained oblivious of all save our own rapture, and heedless each of everything except that together we had come into our own kingdom of happiness and perfect understanding.

We were roused by the sound of footsteps approaching the room. Althea drew away from me in tremulous confusion, her eyes shining radiantly, her colour mantling her cheeks.

It was my sister. "I was just coming for you, Bess," I said hurriedly, meeting her as she entered.

"I couldn't think where you were. You were awfully quiet"; and she looked from one to the other doubtfully, and then went toward Althea.

Althea turned quickly on her approach, and kissed her very lovingly, and put her arms round her waist. And seeing her eyes, Bessie understood.

"Oh!"

Her glance at me was an eloquent substitute for anything more. And then in her turn she put her arms round Althea and hugged her.

"I'm going to my room, Bess; come to me presently," I exclaimed, and left them together.

At first the sense of the rapturous happiness which had come to me filled my thoughts to the exclusion of all else, and it was only Bessie's arrival that called me down from the clouds.

She was a good chum but not usually demonstrative. Now, however, she came straight up to me and kissed me. "It's just lovely, Paul; but of course I've been expecting it; and you two have been a long time coming to an understanding."

I laughed. I was in the mood to laugh at anything. "All right," I said inanely.

"Ah, you don't understand women, Paul, or you'd have seen as plainly as I have that Althea has cared for you ever so long," she said sententiously.

"Where is she?"

"Gone upstairs to her father. That's the only part I don't like in it. But poor Althea can't help that. And now, haven't we a lot to do yet? One of the three must be practical and think of things; and Althea can't. Oh, Paul, I never saw anything like her delight."

"Yes, I suppose one must be practical even at such a time"; and then we plunged into the discussion of my make-up for the evening's business.

She had brought Althea's dress down with her, and she fitted on the skirt and made such alterations as were needed. I kept it on, in order to accustom myself to it and be able to walk without tumbling over it. I should wear it over my own things of course as I knew that I must be able to get it off when the need arose.

The bodice proved impossible, however; so Bessie cleverly improvised a substitute; and we arranged that I should wear a short cloak of hers which would come just below my waist. And she so contrived everything that I could readily reassume my own garb.

When all was finished I went up to my room to shave off my moustache, and we laughed long and heartily together at my clumsy efforts to follow her instructions about holding up the skirt in getting upstairs.

It might have been a sort of mad frolic we were planning instead of the grim business which I knew that night would see.

Then came the face make-up and the arrangement of the wig, hat and veil; and while Bessie was intent upon this, I slipped a loaded revolver into the pocket of my jacket, to which I had arranged ready access.

"I declare, you make quite a pretty girl, Paul; but you're dreadfully awkward. You must take shorter steps or you'll be found out the instant you leave the house," said Bessie, turning to survey the effect a moment later.

"Thank goodness there are only a few steps to walk in any event. The only tough part will be in the carriage with the beggar. By Jove, it's close to the time. I'd better be ready in the drawing-room."

Just as we reached the room, Ellen met us. She took me for Althea, and was so astonished at seeing her dressed for the street that she exclaimed: "Are you going out, miss?"

I did not open my mouth and went on, but Bessie replied: "Yes, Ellen. A carriage is coming directly for Fräulein von Ringheim"--since Althea's visit to the police when I had been taken away, we had dropped all attempt at concealing her name--"and when it arrives you will just come to this room and tell her."

"I could scarcely keep a straight face with Ellen," she said as she joined me.

"It took her in anyhow, and that's hopeful; and now I'll spend the last few minutes in practising this infernal walk."

I managed it better after a time, and I was in the middle of the practice when Althea came down. For the moment she mistook me for a friend of Bessie's, and was going out quickly when she recognized her own dress.

"I declare I shouldn't have known you, Paul."

I walked up to her with the little mincing gait and held out a gloved hand. "I hope you are well," I said in a falsetto voice. I saw how really anxious she was about the thing and was resolved to treat it as a joke.

But Althea was too overwrought to see any but the dangerous side of the affair. "I hope no harm will come to you," she exclaimed fervently.

"There is not the slightest fear of anything of the sort. But there mustn't be three of us in the room when Ellen comes in or she'll take one of us for a ghost. And the time's up."

She came very close to me and I saw she was trembling. "I pray to Heaven all will be well," she cried earnestly.

"Within five minutes of our reaching his house I shall have that fellow on his knees. And now, you must go, or I shall be tempted to upset all these beastly arrangements on my head and--well, you know," I laughed.

At that moment we heard the sound of the carriage and she hurried away upstairs.

Then I saw how my sister had been hiding her real apprehension under a light laughing humour. "It will be all right, Paul? You are sure?" she asked, her lip trembling.

I replied in the same light vein as to Althea. "Unless the fool tries to kiss me in the carriage, or I give myself away, I cannot fail. I shall be back again in a very short time; and remember what I told you--you may have to rush off by the mail to-night. Be ready."

Ellen opened the door then and announced that the carriage had come.

"Good-bye then, Althea," exclaimed Bessie, most naturally. "And with all my heart good luck."

She walked with me as far as the front door to cover my burlesque of a girl's gait, and I tiptoed quickly across the pavement, entered the carriage, and leaned forward to wave my hand to her.

The next moment the door was shut and we started.

CHAPTER XX

A BRIDE ELECT

My first inclination on taking my seat in the carriage with von Felsen was to laugh. His face wore such an expression of self-satisfaction and triumph that the absurdity of it appealed almost irresistibly to my sense of humour.

The whole thing was like a little farcical curtain-raiser at a theatre which prefaces the real drama.

That he did not discover the deception at once was a cause of wonderment to me. If my feelings were any indication of my appearance, I must have looked as awkward a creature as ever wore a petticoat. The skirt of the dress was "anyhow." That is to say, it hung in awkward creases and folds as I sat with my legs doubled close under me for fear he should see my very ungirlish feet.

I had to keep my hands out of sight, pulled uncomfortably up under my short cloak; and I had to sit bolt upright, because, when I had tried to appear overcome and had leant back against the side of the carriage, I was within an ace of dislodging the whole of my headgear, hat, veil, wig and everything.

But of all the troubles of that terrible costume, I think the veil was the worst. It tickled my nose; it irritated my freshly shaven upper lip; it caught my eyelashes and brought the tears to my eyes; it interfered with my sight; and it made me twitch my lips, and chin and nose as if I had St. Vitus' dance, until I could have sworn aloud at it in all the languages I knew.

I presume that von Felsen took my extraordinary attitude for sullenness, and he appeared quite undecided as to the correct manner in which to behave to a girl he was forcing to marry him. He made very little effort to speak to me during the journey, and the attempts he did make were of course unsuccessful in eliciting anything from me but a gesture of indignation or anger.

"I am sorry to have had to do this, Althea," he said after one of these gestures of mine. I had just turned my back on him as he had sought to get hold of my hand in a spoony way.

I shrugged my shoulders and gave a little toss of the head--none too energetic of course, for fear of consequences.

"I'll make it up to you. You know that, dearest. You know that I worship the very ground you tread on, and all my life shall be devoted to make you happy."

It was a queer sensation to have a man making love to me, and if I could have counterfeited Althea's voice, I'd have led him on a bit. Although, how any girl could feel romantic with a thing tickling her face, as that infernal veil was tickling mine, beat me. My chief sensation was an almost overpowering desire to rub my nose.

My silence and my attitude of resentful disbelief annoyed him. "You let me make love to you before that infernal Englishman came in the way," he said, only he used a stronger epithet for me. "I suppose he has done his best to set you against me. But I'm even with him now."

I maintained the same stolid coldness.

"Aren't you going to speak a word to me?" he cried after a long pause; and he bent forward and tried to look into my face.

It was fortunately a very dull evening, and the light inside the carriage was so dim that even at close quarters he could not have made out my features; but I took care he should not get too close, and twisted away from him.

Then he commenced to claw for my hand again. I was afraid he would put his arm round my waist, for I knew that the dimensions of it would give him something of a shock. As it was he fooled about with my arm; and that he did not at once discover that no girl, except an athlete, was likely to have an arm as hard as mine, was amazing. However, he got hold of my fingers--I was sitting with arms crossed--and when I found that the size of them did not rouse his suspicions, I let him retain his hold.

This appeared to satisfy him, and he kept hold, squeezing them now and again as if he found great pleasure in the business.

I could not refrain from speculating whether a girl in such circumstances would have thought a man such an awful ass as I thought him. I suppose she would.

He appeared to regard this hand-fumbling business as a sign of relenting on my part, for we were quite close to his house before he said any more.

"The mere touch of your hand is a delight to me, Althea," he murmured, like the fatuous idiot he was making of himself.

I drew my hand away and turned my back squarely upon him. The sigh he gave might have come right from the pit of his stomach and been gathering weigh all the journey.

"I will make you love me, yet, Althea. You are the only woman in the world to me." Not a very original sentiment, perhaps; but apparently quite earnest; and before he could make any further headway with his love-making, the carriage drew up at his door.

He got out and held his hand to help me. But I disdained his assistance, and grabbing hold of my dress in the way in which Bessie had carefully instructed me, I stepped out and hurried up the steps and into the hall.

Seated there was the clerk from "W. Mischen"; and he rose at my entrance and gave me a long curious stare. In his eyes I was, of course, a lady of quality; and he scanned me from head to foot. I had presence of mind enough to let my dress fall well over my boots, however.

When von Felsen saw him he started and was for hurrying me into his room; but the clerk stepped forward.

"I came for the lease and papers, sir, from W. Mischen," he said respectfully.

"You are before your time; but I'll see you in a minute," replied von Felsen changing colour and speaking nervously. "This way, Althea"; and he pushed the door open for me to enter.

I had feared to find in the room the priest and any others who were to be present at the marriage and I hesitated a second on the threshold. The hesitation was really no more than an involuntary start of surprise and pleasure at seeing it empty. It was his private room, as I knew.

But he mistook the gesture for one of doubt of him. "The rest are in the room opposite," he hastened to explain. "I wish to speak to you first. We must have an understanding before we go to the others," he added when we were inside and he had closed the door behind us. "There must be no tricks before the priest. You must promise me not to make a scene of any sort."

The moment had come for undeceiving him; but as he was standing between me and the door I tried to put it off for a while longer. I shrugged my shoulders, and then, as if seized with a sudden frenzy of despair, I clapped my hands to my face and flopped down on a chair. My back was to him, of course, for the electric lights were full on.

He came to me and laid a hand on my shoulder; but I shook it off, got up and rushed to another chair nearer the door, and gave such a back view of a girl's agitation as I could manage to portray.

It was sufficient for the purpose. "You must compose yourself, Althea," he said, following me.

I glanced round and shuddered as if at his approach, and ventured to grunt out a little moan of pain.

He stopped and looked at me, half in anger and half in dire perplexity. "I won't come near you then," he growled, and down he plumped into a chair to watch for any signs of my return to self-control.

I was now between him and the door and was much easier in mind; and began to prepare stealthily to throw off the disguise. I had taken off my gloves when it occurred to me to try to continue the scene long enough to induce him to get out the papers for which the clerk was waiting. I had no doubt they were in the room somewhere.

I remained inconsolable, therefore, until his patience waned. He sat for some time tapping his fingers restlessly on the table and staring at me; and then with a sign of vexation, rose and crossed to an old bureau desk.

"For Heaven's sake calm yourself, Althea. The thing has got to go through if you mean to save your father," he said; "and I pledge you my honour that afterwards I will do everything in my power to make you happy. I will, on my soul."

I responded to this with a gesture sufficient to enable me to turn and see what he was doing, and let out a sigh.

I saw that he was watching me furtively while he opened some secret recess in the bureau and took out a carefully sealed envelope.

I sighed again--this time with a genuine feeling of relief--and rose.

He put the envelope quickly into his pocket and turned. "I have one little thing to do first," he said, and was coming toward the door when I gave him the first of his surprises.

I stepped forward quickly, locked the door and took out the key.

"What are you doing, Althea?" he cried.

I put my back to the door and slipping my hand through the opening in my skirt got my revolver in readiness. With the other hand I took hold of the string with which we had tied on the skirt. All the top hamper of hat and so on would come off with one vigorous tug.

Thus prepared I waited to see what he would do next.

His first attempt was bluster. "How dare you lock that door? If you think to try and cheat me at the last moment, it will not help you. I have only to send word and your father will be in gaol." He was afraid to speak too loudly for fear that those outside should hear him; but his temper was rising quickly.

On my side I was absolutely indifferent who heard us, and I stood stock still with my back against the door staring at him as hard as I could stare through the meshes of the thick veil.

"Open that door, or give me the key at once. Do you hear, Althea? This is all foolishness. Then I shall take it from you," he continued, when he got no reply. He came up to me and I thrust him away.

Even then he did not suspect the trick I had played him. Presumably he could not believe any one could have made such a fool of him.

He was at a loss what to do next. He was but a weakly fellow, and the strength with which I had pushed him away had startled him.

"What is it you want, Althea? I'll do anything you wish."

I chose that moment to end the farce. I drew the tape which held up the skirt, and with a vigorous tug got rid of the hat and wig and threw it all aside as I disentangled my legs from the skirt.

He started back as though I were the devil himself. I must have looked a curious figure. I had had to roll up my trousers to prevent their being seen underneath the dress; I still had on Bessie's short cloak and was thus still garbed on top partly as a man and partly as a woman, while my drawers showed as high as my knees.

But it was not the humour of the change which appealed to him now. His wide eyes were fixed first on my face and then on the revolver which I took good care should attract a full share of his attention.

"Sit down and hold your tongue till I tell you to speak," I said.

He was ashen white and trembled violently. But he was obedient enough. He sat down, or rather fell into a chair, and glared helplessly at me.

I got rid of the rest of the disguise and then rolled down my trousers. I had to free myself from the sense of the ridiculous figure I cut.

He watched every movement like a lynx. I bundled the things into a heap. "You can send them back to my house presently," I said with a grim laugh. "And now we can talk. First, give me that paper which you were to send by that fellow in the hall."

He tried to force some sort of lie in response, but his lips were trembling so that he could not frame the words.

"I'm glad to see you are suffering from a touch of the agitation you were quite ready to inflict on Althea. Now don't make any mistake. You have to do exactly what I order you. It's a matter of life or death to you."

I gave him time to digest this so that it might sink right into his inmost convictions, and saturate his little soul with terror. He had enjoyed the sensation that afternoon of riding rough-shod over me; and he should learn now how it felt to have some one else in the saddle. Judging by his looks he found the experience mightily depressing.

In the pause some one knocked at the door. A passing gleam of hope flashed into his eyes and he half rose. But I lifted my weapon just the fraction of an inch and gestured to him to keep his seat. He obeyed and crouched back in the chair like a whipped hound.

In this way we waited while the knock was twice repeated.

"Tell them to go away," I ordered.

And then he gave me a surprise in my turn. "Break the door open," he called in as loud a tone as he could master. But fear had clogged his utterance, so that they could not hear his words distinctly.

"What did you say, sir?" called some one in response.

Before he could reply to this I sprang on him and tore the coveted packet from his pocket, ripped off the seals and glanced at the contents. The glance was enough to satisfy me of the prize I had secured.

"You can call them in now, if you dare. I don't want your life now."

He stood a few seconds staring at me, quivering with rage and fear; and then the question was repeated from outside.

"Don't try that trick again, mind," I said.

"Go away till I call," he answered.

"Good," I said with a grim smile. "Now listen to me. Do what I tell you and you shall have a chance to get out of the mess. Go to your desk there and make up a dummy packet like this in appearance and give it to the man who is waiting."

For the moment he was incapable of movement. The failure of his little attempt to outwit me and the result had unnerved him utterly.

"You are going to kill me?" he murmured, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Not if you do as I bid you. I don't lie, and I have passed my word."

It was necessary to steady his nerves in some degree for what I meant him to do; so I waited while he fought down some of his paralysing terror.

Presently he rose and shambled across to the desk, steadying himself as he went by holding to the furniture. He fell into the chair before it and buried his head in his hands and groaned.

"Come. Make an effort." He started at the sound of my voice and glanced round at me. I think he was the most despicable coward I had ever seen. With another deep sigh he picked out an envelope like that I had taken from him and then with shaking fingers folded some sheets of paper, placed them in it and addressed it.

"Seal it," I ordered as he held it out to me. This occupied a longish time; and in his agitation he burnt his fingers badly with the wax. "So far so good," I said. "Now a note to the priest that the ceremony cannot take place. It can't very well, unless you wish to marry me," I added with a short unpleasant laugh.

With a great effort he succeeded in writing the note; and again held it out for me to read. "Now, take these to the door and tell your servant to give the one to the priest and the other to the messenger from W. Mischen. Not a syllable more. I shall be behind you with this"; and I held up the revolver.

I rang the bell and we crossed the room together. I unlocked the door and stood close behind him with the muzzle of my weapon pressed close to his ribs.

"My finger is on the trigger," I whispered, as the servant knocked and he opened the door. He was too abjectly frightened to try any tricks this time, and delivered the message just as I had told him. The next instant the door was safely locked once more, and he tottered back to his seat.

"You can take your own time now to recover; but you have a good deal more writing to do, so you had better pull yourself together."

A silence, lasting some minutes followed; and I used the time to read the paper which I had secured and to make a rough précis of it. He glanced up once or twice at me the while, and when I put the paper back into the envelope, he asked: "What are you going to do with that?"

I paid no heed to his question.

"Are you ready? Then go over to your desk again and write me a true account of how you got this."

This threw him again into a condition of trembling fear. "What do you want it for?" he stammered.

"I'll give you two minutes to make a start in"; and I drew out my watch.

He got up and fumbled his way to the desk again, and after a pause began to write, with many delays and hesitation.

Presently I crossed and over his shoulder read what he had written. A silly lie about having found the paper. I tore the sheet from the desk and crumpled it up.

"Don't think to palm off that lie to me. I know how you got it. Write the truth, or I send for Herr Borsen." The threat had little effect however.

"I swear on my soul that that is the truth," he muttered, looking round.

"You are playing with your life, man. Your only chance of getting me to hold my tongue is to make a clean breast of it, not only about your theft but another thing."

"What do you mean?" Just a whisper of terror. No more.

"Your loss of this."

I took out the ring which I had found on the night of Ziegler's murder.

It was the breaking point. He stared at it a second like a man bereft of his wits, gave one glance up into my stern, set face, and with a groan let his head fall on the desk before it.

"Come," I said, shaking him roughly.

But he had swooned; and when I released my grip of him, he slipped from the chair to the ground and lay a huddled heap on the floor.

CHAPTER XXI

LIKE A DOG AT HEEL

As soon as I realized that von Felsen had fainted, I laid him on his back and hunted round for some spirits. I found some brandy, and after having poured about half a wineglass down his throat, left him to recover his senses.

He was in a desperate plight when he came to; and at one time I was so alarmed by his looks and his feeble flickering pulse, that I was on the point of calling assistance. If his heart failed while he and I were alone together, it might be awkward for me.

For him I had no sort of feeling but loathing and contempt; and whether he lived or died was a matter of indifference so long as he lived long enough to do what I required.

When he was looking his worst, he rallied a bit, however, and another dose of the spirit set his pulse beating again with less irregularity and some strength.

After a while he sat up and looked about him vacantly.

"I fainted?" he said, in a weak shaky voice.

"Yes," I nodded. "I found your brandy and gave you some."

"Give me some more. Oh, my God, I remember now," he cried wildly, and clapped both his hands to his face.

I gave him the spirit and the glass rattled as he placed it to his chattering teeth. "You'd better get on that sofa and lie down for a while."

He glanced at me like a dog at his master, crawled across the floor to the couch and dragged himself up slowly on to it. He was shivering violently, so I threw over him the skirt of the dress I had worn, and left him to himself for a long time: half an hour probably.

I took out again the paper he had stolen from his father's office and re-read it carefully, fixing all the main points in my memory.

Old Ziegler had known well what he was about in forcing von Felsen to steal such a document, and in getting me to agree to publish it in London.

It was nothing less than a complete statement of the Kaiser's shipbuilding policy for the future; the strength of the future navy, a full list of the ships which were to be built; their tonnage, equipment and armament; the number of the crews needed; everything given with scrupulous detail.

Against every vessel indicated there was the name of a British vessel with the same detail of its size and armament. In each case the German vessel was to be of superior strength. It told its own story with a clearness of inference that no one could mistake.

That it was an authentic document, I could not doubt. It was full of interlineations and corrections in different handwritings. I recognized one or two of them, and the whole appearance of the thing convinced me that it would have been practically impossible for von Felsen or any one else to have forged it.

That its disclosure would have raised a storm all over Europe was as certain as that day follows night; and that it would injure the Imperial Government immensely was equally clear, in view of the then excited condition of public feeling.

It might even have provoked a war with England. Already the relations between the two countries had been strained almost to a breaking point by the Kaiser's hot-headed telegram to the Boer President and the belief of his desire to intervene in the war in South Africa.

Even had I been still a newspaper man I should have hesitated to take the responsibility of publication; and as it was, I did not contemplate such a step for an instant. I had obtained possession of it for my own private ends, and for those I would use it. For such a purpose it was precisely what I needed.

But the instant the theft was discovered there would be such a hue and cry raised that the mere possession of it would be a source of danger. Luckily I had foreseen something of this; and it was my plan to get it out of the country with the least possible loss of time. It was for this I had told my sister to be ready to leave by the mail.

Time was getting on too; so I roused von Felsen. "Come, you must get to work," I said. "I can't wait any longer."

With a heavy sigh he sat up. "What do you want?"

"Write me the truth as to how you came by this paper. Where it was kept; in whose charge it was; how you knew of its existence; why you stole it; and precisely the steps you took to obtain it. As short as you like; but in such detail that your story can be tested."

"I daren't. It's more than my life's worth," he protested.

"You can choose between that and standing your trial for Ziegler's murder. Without this ring I have enough evidence to convict you--what you did before the crime; where you went from; how you gained admittance to the house; when you left; where you went; and, mark this, what you did with the weapon."

The greater part of all that was, of course, mere bluff; and I put it only in general terms. But he was in such fear of me, that it was safe bluff. Not for a second did he doubt that I could make every syllable good. I could tell that by his looks.

After another groan of anguish he rose and crossed to the desk. "What do you mean to do with it?" he asked, looking round with the pen in his hand.

"Hush it all up, if you go straight. Use it, if you don't."

After a pause he began to write; and the scratch, scratch of his pen was the only sound in the room for many minutes.

I took each half sheet as he finished it; and had no doubt he was writing the truth. He was completely in the toils of the old Jew, and the latter had forced him to do this under threats of ruin and exposure. He had been drawn into the toils of the Polish party and they had threatened to tell of the information which he had sold to them on former occasions. This was to be the price of his complete emancipation from them; and in dire fear of them he had consented.

"You were to receive twenty thousand marks. Put that in," I interrupted.

It was an excellent stroke. He was overwhelmed by the fact that I knew so much; and it settled all thought of any doubts about the rest of my knowledge.

"Let me leave that out," he whined.

"Do as I say," I rapped back sternly; and he obeyed. Then he went on to describe the means by which he had committed the theft. He had duplicate keys of all the locks in his father's office.

When he had finished the confession and signed it, I made him hand over those keys to me. With such a piece of evidence as they constituted in my hands, I cared comparatively little whether his statement were true or false. They would speak for themselves.

The writing of the confession with the breaks and pauses occupied nearly an hour, and I could see that he was nearly collapsing; so I told him to make the statement about Ziegler's murder very short.

"I have enough evidence without this at all," I declared; and he believed me. But I made him give such an account of his doings on the night, and particularly about the dagger he had used, where he had obtained it, and what he had done with it, as would enable me at need to find the proofs of his guilt.

When the ordeal was over he tottered back to the couch and lay down exhausted; and I gave him a few minutes while I ran through both his statements. Then I was ready to leave.

"Now about your future. I'll keep my word to you. The stolen paper and your keys shall be returned to your father's office as the price of Baron von Ringheim's pardon. I shall see your father and show him what you have written about it all; and you know well enough that no harm will come to you through him as the result. Are you listening?"

A feeble gesture of the hand was his only response.

"You'd better, for your life hangs on your understanding all I say and doing what I tell you. Your admission of the murder I shall keep a dead secret"--he started at that, raised himself on his elbow and looked across at me--"on one condition. You must be out of the country within twenty-four hours. If I find you here at the end of that time I shall hand it to the police."

With a deep breath of relief he sank back. "I'll go; but I've--I've no money."

"I'll find you enough to get away with"; and I laid a sum on the table; "and as soon as you are across the frontier you can communicate with your friends."

The assurance that he was to have a chance to save his worthless skin had a surprisingly invigorating effect upon him. Now that the suspense was over and he knew the worst which could befall him, he was greatly relieved. He got up and lighted a cigarette. "Don't go yet," he said.

I was at the door and turned.

"I've made an awful mess of things," he went on.

"I don't want to discuss the ethics of your conduct," I retorted.

"I'll go straight now. I'll prove it to you in a minute. But I want you to know that I didn't go to Ziegler's with any intention of killing him. I went to get off that marriage with the daughter; and it was only when we quarrelled and he made me mad that I did it. He threatened me."

"Anyhow you had arranged that some one else should do it, because you had secretly accused him of treachery to his associates. And there isn't much difference between the two."

"How the devil do you get to know so much? Yes, I did that. I'll admit it to you after all this. But I'll go straight, as I said. And here's the proof, so far as you are concerned. The police are still round your house, and if you were to go back without a sign from me you'd all be arrested."

I had not thought of that. "You'd better give me something then."

He went again to the desk and wrote a line or two. "You are to withdraw your men. Hugo von Felsen," I read when he handed it to me.

"Perhaps that will convince you that I am in earnest," he said. "Give it to the fellow in charge there. I shall leave for Austria to-night"; and with that we parted.

On my way home I found myself speculating whether he had been sincere in that last act of his, or whether he could possibly have some other kind of motive at the back of his head. It was uncommonly like a Greek gift.

And then a possible solution occurred to me. My arrest at that moment with the papers I was carrying would have betrayed everything. He had had wit enough to remember that, although I had overlooked it. That sudden return to comparative self-possession took a fresh light in this connexion.

Could he, even now, when I had possession of such damning proofs of his guilt in both affairs, be contemplating some further treachery? Would he dare such a step? He had been reduced to the lowest depths of abject terror when I had confronted him with the proofs and extracted the confessions from him, that it was difficult to credit it was all shamming.