"You have proofs?" demanded Fitzgerald.
"The very best in the world. I have not only seen those patents, but I have seen the man."
"Very interesting," agreed Breitmann, brushing the crumbs into his hand and dropping them on his plate. "But, go on."
"What a man!" breathed Fitzgerald, who began to see the drift of things.
"I proceed, then. Two generations pa.s.sed. I doubt if the third generation of this family has ever heard of the affair. One day the last of his race, in clearing up the salable things in his house--for he had decided to lease it--stumbled on the scant history of his forebears. He was at school then; a promising youngster, brave, cheerful, full of adventure and curiosity. Contrary to the natural sequence of events, he chose the navy, where he did very well. But in some way Germany found out what France already knew. Here was a fine chance for a stroke of politics. France had always watched; without fear, however, but with half-formed wonder. Germany considered the case: why not turn this young fellow loose on France, to worry and to harry her? So, quietly Germany bore on the youth in that cold-blooded, Teutonic way she has, and forced him out of the navy.
"He was poor, and poverty among German officers, in either branch, is a bad thing. Our young friend did not penetrate the cause of this at first; for he had no intention of utilizing his papers, save to dream over them. The blood of his great forebear refused to let him bow under this unjust stroke. He sought a craft, an interesting one. The net again closed in on him. He began to grow desperate, and desperation was what Germany desired. Desperation would make a tool of the young fellow. But our young Napoleon was not without wit. He plotted, but so cleverly and secretly that never a hand could reach out to stay him. Germany finally offered him an immense bribe. He threw it back, for now he hated Germany more than he hated France. You wonder why he hated France? If France had not discarded her empire--I do not refer to the second empire--he would have been a great personage to-day. At least this must be one of his ideas.
"And there you are," abruptly. "Here we have a Napoleon, indeed with all the patience of his great forebear. If Germany had left him alone he would to-day have been a good citizen, who would never have permitted futile dreams to enter his head, and who would have contemplated his greatness with the smile of a philosopher. And who can say where this will end? It is pitiful."
"Pitiful?" repeated Breitmann. "Why that?" calmly.
M. Ferraud repressed the admiration in his eyes. It was a singular duel. "When we see a madman rushing blindly over a precipice it is a human instinct to reach out a hand to save him."
"But how do you know he is rushing blindly?" Breitmann smiled this question.
Hildegarde sent him a terrified glance. But for the stiff back of her chair she must have fallen.
M. Ferraud demolished an olive before he answered the question. "He has allied himself with some of the n.o.blest houses in France; that is to say, with the most heartless spendthrifts in Europe. Napoleon IV?
They are laughing behind his back this very minute. They are making a cat"s-paw of his really magnificent fight for their own ign.o.ble ends, the Orleanist party. To wreak petty vengeance on France, for which none of them has any love; to embroil the government and the army that they may tell of it in the boudoirs. This is the aim they have in view. What is it to them that they break a strong man"s heart? What is it to them if he be given over to perpetual imprisonment? Did a Bourbon ever love France as a country? Has not France always represented to them a purse into which they might thrust their dishonest hands to pay for their base pleasures? Oh, beware of the conspirator whose sole portion in life is that of pleasure! I wish that I could see this young man and tell him all I know. If I could only warn him."
Breitmann brushed his sleeve. "I am really disappointed in your climax, Mr. Ferraud."
"I said nothing about a climax," returned M. Ferraud. "That has yet to be enacted."
"Ah!"
"A descendant of Napoleon, direct! Poor devil!" The admiral was thunderstruck. "Why, the very spirit of Napoleon is dead. Nothing could ever revive it. It would not live even a hundred days."
"Less than that many hours," said M. Ferraud. "He will be arrested the moment he touches a French port."
"Father," cried Laura, with a burst of generosity which not only warmed her heart but her cheeks, "why not find this poor, deluded young man and give him the treasure?"
"What, and ruin him morally as well as politically? No, Laura; with money he might become a menace."
"On the contrary," put in M. Ferraud; "with money he might be made to put away his mad dream. But I"m afraid that my story has made you all gloomy."
"It has made me sad," Laura admitted. "Think of the struggle, the self-denial, and never a soul to tell him he is mad."
The scars faded a little, but Breitmann"s eyes never wavered.
"The man hasn"t a ghost of a chance." To Fitzgerald it was now no puzzle why Breitmann"s resemblance to some one else had haunted him.
He was rather bewildered, for he had not expected so large an order upon M. Ferraud"s promise. "Fifty years ago. . ."
"Ah! Fifty years ago," interrupted M. Ferraud eagerly, "I should have thrown my little to the cause. Men and times were different then; the world was less sordid and more romantic."
"Well, I shall always hold that we have no right to that treasure."
"Fiddlesticks, Laura! This is no time for sentiment. The questions buzzing in my head are: Does this man know of the treasure"s existence?
Might he not already have put his hand upon it?"
"Your own papers discredit that supposition," replied Cathewe. "A stunning yarn, and rather hard to believe in these skeptical times.
What is it?" he asked softly, noting the dead white on Hildegarde"s cheeks.
"Perhaps it is the smoke," she answered with a brave attempt at a smile.
The admiral in his excitement had lighted a heavy cigar and was consuming it with jerky puffs, a bit of thoughtlessness rather pardonable under the stress of the moment. For he was beginning to entertain doubts. It was not impossible for this Napoleonic chap to have a chart, to know of the treasure"s existence. He wished he had heard this story before. He would have left the women at home.
Corsica was not wholly civilized, and who could tell what might happen there? Yes, the admiral had his doubts.
"I should like to know the end of the story," said Breitmann musingly.
"There is time," replied M. Ferraud; and of them all, only Fitzgerald caught the sinister undercurrent.
"So, Miss Killigrew, you believe that this treasure should be handed over to its legal owner?" Breitmann looked into her eyes for the first time that evening.
"I have some doubt about the legal ownership, but the sentimental and moral ownership is his. A romance should always have a pleasant ending."
"You are thinking of books," was Cathewe"s comment. "In life there is more adventure than romance, and there is seldom anything more incomplete in every-day life than romance."
"That would be my own exposition, Mr. Cathewe," said Breitmann.
The two fenced briefly. They understood each other tolerably well; only, Cathewe as yet did not know the manner of the man with whom he was matched.
The dinner came to an end, or, rather, the diners rose, the dinner having this hour or more been cleared from the table; and each went to his or her state-room mastered by various degrees of astonishment.
Fitzgerald moved in a kind of waking sleep. Napoleon IV! That there was a bar sinister did not matter. The dazzle radiated from a single point: a dream of empire! M. Ferraud had not jested; Breitmann was mad, obsessed, a monomaniac. It was grotesque; it troubled the senses as a Harlequin"s dance troubles the eyes. A great-grandson of Napoleon, and plotting to enter France! And, good Lord! with what?
Two million francs and half a dozen spendthrifts. Never had there been a wilder, more hopeless dreamer than this! Whatever antagonism or anger he had harbored against Breitmann evaporated. Poor devil, indeed!
He understood M. Ferraud now. Breitmann was mad; but till he made a decisive stroke no man could stay him. So many things were clear now.
He was after the treasure, and he meant to lay his hands upon it, peacefully if he could, violently if no other way opened. That day in the Invalides, the old days in the field, his unaccountable appearance on the Jersey coast; each of these things squared themselves in what had been a puzzle. But, like the admiral, he wished that there were no women on board. There would be a contest of some order, going forward, where only men would be needed. Pirates! He rolled into his bunk with a dry laugh.
Meantime M. Ferraud walked the deck alone, and finally when Breitmann approached him, it was no more than he had been expecting.
"Among other things," began the secretary, with ominous calm, "I should like to see the impression of your thumb."
"That lock was an ingenious contrivance. It was only by the merest accident I discovered it."
"It must be a vile business."
"Serving one"s country? I do not agree with you. Wait a moment, Mr.
Breitmann; let us not misunderstand each other. I do not know what fear is; but I do know that I am one of the few living who put above all other things in the world, France: France with her wide and beautiful valleys, her splendid mountains, her present peace and prosperity. And my life is nothing if in giving it I may confer a benefit."
"Why did you not tell the whole story? A Frenchman, and to deny oneself a climax like this?"
M. Ferraud remained silent.