"It would take a great deal more than that to move me just now," he said, "even if I had not suspected from the first that the man was lying."
Richard glanced at his companion a little curiously.
"I shouldn"t have said that you were having such a good time, Sir Henry," he observed; "in fact I should have thought you would have been rather glad of an opportunity to slip away."
Hunterleys looked around them. They had reached the top of the staircase and were in sight of the dense crowd in the rooms.
"Come and have a drink," he suggested. "A great many of these people will have cleared off presently."
"I"ll have a drink, with pleasure," Richard answered, "but I still can"t see why you"re stuck on this place."
They strolled into the bar and found two vacant places.
"My dear young friend," Hunterleys said, as he ordered their drinks, "if you were an Englishman instead of an American, I think that I would give you a hint as to the reason why I do not wish to leave Monte Carlo just at present."
"Can"t see what difference that makes," Richard declared. "You know I"m all for the old country."
"I wonder whether you are," Hunterleys remarked thoughtfully. "I tell you frankly that if I thought you meant it, I should probably come to you before long for a little help."
"If ever you do, I"m your man," Richard a.s.sured him heartily. "Any more sc.r.a.ps going?"
Hunterleys sipped his whisky and soda thoughtfully. There had been an exodus from the room to watch some heavy gambling at _Trente et Quarante_, and for a moment they were almost alone.
"Lane," he said, "I am going to take you a little into my confidence. In a way I suppose it is foolish, but to tell you the truth, I am almost driven to it. You know that I am a Member of Parliament, and you may have heard that if our Party hadn"t gone out a few years ago, I was to have been Foreign Minister."
"I"ve heard that often enough," Lane a.s.sented. "I"ve heard you quoted, too, as an example of the curse of party politics. Just because you are forced to call yourself a member of one Party you are debarred from serving your country in any capacity until that Party is in power."
"That"s quite true," Hunterleys admitted, "and to tell you the truth, ridiculous though it seems, I don"t see how you"re to get away from it in a practical manner. Anyhow, when my people came out I made up my mind that I wasn"t going to just sit still in Opposition and find fault all the time, especially as we"ve a real good man at the Foreign Office. I was quite content to leave things in his hands, but then, you see, politically that meant that there was nothing for me to do. I thought matters over and eventually I paired for six months and was supposed to go off for the benefit of my health. As a matter of fact, I have been in the Balkan States since Christmas," he added, dropping his voice a little.
"What the d.i.c.kens have you been doing there?"
"I can"t tell you that exactly," Hunterleys replied. "Unfortunately, my enemies are suspicious and they have taken to watching me closely. They pretty well know what I am going to tell you--that I have been out there at the urgent request of the Secret Service Department of the present Government. I have been in Greece and Servia and Roumania, and, although I don"t think there"s a soul in the world knows, I have also been in St.
Petersburg."
"But what"s it all about?" Richard persisted. "What have you been doing in all these places?"
"I can only answer you broadly," Hunterleys went on. "There is a perfectly devilish scheme afloat, directed against the old country. I have been doing what I can to counteract it. At the last moment, just as I was leaving Sofia for London, by the merest chance I discovered that the scene for the culmination of this little plot was to be Monte Carlo, so I made my way round by Trieste, stayed at Bordighera and San Remo for a few days to put people off, and finally turned up here."
"Well, I"m jiggered!" Lane muttered. "And I thought you were just hanging about for your health or because your wife was here, and were bored to death for want of something to do."
"On the contrary," Hunterleys a.s.sured him, "I was up all night sending reports home--very interesting reports, too. I got them away all right, but there"s no denying the fact that there are certain people in Monte Carlo at the present moment who suspect my presence here, and who would go to any lengths whatever to get rid of me. It isn"t the actual harm I might do, but they have to deal with a very delicate problem and to make a bargain with a very sensitive person, and they are terribly afraid that my presence here, and a meeting between me and that person, might render all their schemes abortive."
Richard"s face was a study in astonishment.
"Well," he exclaimed, "this beats everything! I"ve read of such things, of course, but one only half believes them. Right under our very noses, too! Say, what are you going to do about it, Sir Henry?"
"There is only one thing I can do," Hunterleys replied grimly. "I am bound to keep my place here. They"ll drive me out if they can. I am convinced that the polite warning I have received to leave Monaco this afternoon because of last night"s affair, is part of the conspiracy. In plain words, I"ve got to stick it out."
"But what good are you doing here, anyway?"
Hunterleys smiled and glanced carefully around the room. They were still free from any risk of being overheard.
"Well," he said, "perhaps you will understand my meaning more clearly if I tell you that I am the brains of a counterplot. The English Secret Service has a permanent agent here under the guise of a newspaper correspondent, who is in daily touch with me, and he in his turn has several spies at work. I am, however, the dangerous person. The others are only servants. They make their reports, but they don"t understand their true significance. If these people could remove me before any one else could arrive to take my place, their chances of bringing off their coup here would be immensely improved."
"I suppose it"s useless for me to ask if there"s anything I can do to help?" Richard enquired.
"You"ve helped already," Hunterleys replied. "I have been nearly three months without being able to open my lips to a soul. People call me secretive, but I feel very human sometimes. I know that not a word of what I have said will pa.s.s your lips."
"Not a chance of it," Richard promised earnestly. "But look here, can"t I do something? If I am not an Englishman, I"m all for the Anglo-Saxons.
I hate these foreigners--that is to say the men," he corrected himself hastily.
Hunterleys smiled.
"Well, I was coming to that," he said. "I do feel hideously alone here, and what I would like you to do is just this. I would like you to call at my room at the Hotel de Paris, number 189, every morning at a certain fixed hour--say half-past ten. Just shake hands with me--that"s all.
Nothing shall prevent my being visible to you at that hour. Under no consideration whatever will I leave any message that I am engaged or have gone out. If I am not to be seen when you make your call, something has happened to me."
"And what am I to do then?"
"That is the point," Hunterleys continued. "I don"t want to bring you too deeply into this matter. All that you need do is to make your way to the English Bank, see Mr. Harrison, the manager, and tell him of your fruitless visit to me. He will give you a letter to my wife and will know what other steps to take."
"Is that all?" Richard asked, a little disappointed. "You don"t antic.i.p.ate any sc.r.a.pping, or anything of that sort?"
"I don"t know what to antic.i.p.ate," Hunterleys confessed, a little wearily. "Things are moving fast now towards the climax. I promise I"ll come to you for help if I need it. You can but refuse."
"No fear of my refusing," Richard declared heartily. "Not on your life, sir!"
Hunterleys rose to his feet with an appreciative little nod. It was astonishing how cordially he had come to feel towards this young man, during the last few hours.
"I"ll let you off now," he said. "I know you want to look around the tables and see if any of our friends of last night are to be found. I, too, have a little affair which I ought to have treated differently a few minutes ago. We"ll meet later."
Hunterleys strolled back into the rooms. He came almost at once face to face with Draconmeyer, whom he was pa.s.sing with unseeing eyes.
Draconmeyer, however, detained him.
"I was looking for you, Sir Henry!" he exclaimed. "Can you spare me one moment?"
They stood a little on one side, out of the way of the moving throng of people. Draconmeyer was fingering nervously his tie of somewhat vivid purple. His manner was important.
"Do you happen, Sir Henry," he asked, "to have had any word from the prison authorities to-day?"
Hunterleys nodded.
"I have just received a message," he replied. "I understand that the man with whom I had a struggle last night has received some internal injuries and is likely to die."
Draconmeyer"s manner became more mysterious. He glanced around the room as though to be sure that they were not overheard.
"I trust, Sir Henry," he said, "that you will not think me in any way presumptuous if I speak to you intimately. I have never had the privilege of your friendship, and in this unfortunate disagreement between your wife and yourself I have been compelled to accept your wife"s point of view, owing to the friendship between Mrs. Draconmeyer and herself. I trust you will believe, however, that I have no feelings of hostility towards you."
"You are very kind," Hunterleys murmured.