"Forgive me if I was a little prolix," he said, "but, after all, what would you have? I am out of office but I remain a servant of my country.
My interest is just as keen as though I were in a responsible position."
"You are well out of it," Simpson sighed. "If half what you suspect is true, it"s the worst fix we"ve been in for some time."
"I am afraid there isn"t any doubt about it," Hunterleys declared. "Of course, we"ve been at a fearful disadvantage. Roche was the only man out here upon whom I could rely. Now they"ve accounted for him, we"ve scarcely a chance of getting at the truth."
Mr. Simpson was gloomily silent for some moments. He was thinking of the time when he had struck his pencil through a recent Secret Service estimate.
"Anyhow," Hunterleys went on, "it will be all over in twenty-four hours.
Something will be decided upon--what, I am afraid there is very little chance of our getting to know. These men will separate--Grex to St.
Petersburg, Selingman to Berlin, Douaille to Paris. Then I think we shall begin to hear the mutterings of the storm."
"I think," Mr. Simpson intervened, his eyes fixed upon an approaching figure, "that there is a young lady talking to the maitre d"hotel, who is trying to attract your attention."
Hunterleys turned around in his chair. It was Felicia who was making her way towards him. He rose at once to his feet. There was a little murmur of interest amongst the lunchers as she threaded her way past the tables. It was not often that an English singer in opera had met with so great a success. Lady Hunterleys, recognising her as she pa.s.sed, paused in the middle of a sentence. Her face hardened. Hunterleys had risen from his place and was watching Felicia"s approach anxiously.
"Is there any news of Sidney?" he asked quickly, as he took her hand.
"Nothing fresh," she answered in a low voice. "I have brought you a message--from some one else."
He held his chair for her but she shook her head.
"I mustn"t stay," she continued. "This is what I wanted to tell you. As I was crossing the square just now, I recognised the man Frenhofer, from the Villa Mimosa. Directly he saw me he came across the road. He was looking for one of us. He dared not come to the villa, he declares, for fear of being watched. He has something to tell you."
"Where can I find him?" Hunterleys asked.
"He has gone to a little bar in the Rue de Chaussures, the Bar de Montmartre it is called. He is waiting there for you now."
"You must stay and have some lunch," Hunterleys begged. "I will come back."
She shook her head.
"I have just been across to the Opera House," she explained, "to enquire about some properties for to-night. I have had all the lunch I want and I am on my way to the hospital now again. I came here on the chance of finding you. They told me at the Hotel de Paris that you were lunching out."
Hunterleys turned and whispered to Simpson.
"This is very important," he said. "It concerns the affair in which we are interested. Linger over your coffee and I will return."
Mr. Simpson nodded and Hunterleys left the restaurant with Felicia. His wife, at whom he glanced for a moment, kept her head averted. She was whispering in the ear of the gallant Monsieur Douaille. Selingman, catching Draconmeyer"s eye, winked at him solemnly.
"You have all the luck, my silent friend," he murmured.
CHAPTER x.x.xIII
THE FATES ARE KIND
The Bar de Montmartre was many steps under the level of the street, dark, smelly, and dilapidated. Its only occupants were a handful of drivers from the carriage-stand opposite, who stared at Hunterleys in amazement as he entered, and then rushed forward, almost in a body, to offer their services. The man behind the bar, however, who had evidently been forewarned, intervened with a few sharp words, and, lifting the flap of the counter, ushered Hunterleys into a little room beyond.
Frenhofer was engaged there in amiable badinage with a young lady who promptly disappeared at Hunterleys" entrance. Frenhofer bowed respectfully.
"I must apologise," he said, "for bringing monsieur to such a place. It is near the end now, and with Monsieur Roche in the hospital I ventured to address myself to monsieur direct. Here I have the right to enter. I make my suit to the daughter of the proprietor in order to have a safe rendezvous when necessary. It is well that monsieur has come quickly. I have tidings. I can disclose to monsieur the meeting-place for to-night.
If monsieur has fortune and the wit to make use of it, the opportunity I shall give him is a great one. But pardon me. Before we talk business we must order something."
He touched the bell. The proprietor himself thrust in his head, bullet-shaped, with black moustache and unshaven chin. He wore no collar, and the remainder of his apparel was negligible.
"A bottle of your best brandy," Frenhofer ordered. "The best, mind, Pere Hanaut."
The man"s acquiescence was as amiable as nature would permit.
"Monsieur will excuse me," Frenhofer went on, as the door was once more closed, "but these people have their little ways. To sell a whole bottle of brandy at five times its value, is to Monsieur le Proprietaire more agreeable than to offer him rent for the hire of his room. He is outside all the things in which we are concerned. He believes--pardon me, monsieur--that we are engaged in a little smuggling transaction.
Monsieur Roche and I have used this place frequently."
"He can believe what he likes," Hunterleys replied, "so long as he keeps his mouth shut."
The brandy was brought--and three gla.s.ses. Frenhofer promptly took the hint and, filling one to the brim, held it out to the landlord.
"You will drink our health, Pere Hanaut--my health and the health of monsieur here, and the health of the fair Annette. Incidentally, you will drink also to the success of the little scheme which monsieur and I are planning."
"In such brandy," the proprietor declared hoa.r.s.ely, "I would drink to the devil himself!"
He threw back his head and the contents of his gla.s.s vanished. He set it down with a little smack of the lips. Once more he looked at the bottle.
Frenhofer filled up his gla.s.s, but motioned to the door with his head.
"You will excuse us, dear friend," he begged, laying his hand persuasively upon the other"s shoulder. "Monsieur and I have little enough of time."
The landlord withdrew. Frenhofer walked around the little apartment.
Their privacy was certainly a.s.sured.
"Monsieur," he announced, turning to Hunterleys, "there has been a great discussion as to the next meeting-place between our friends--the next, which will be also the last. They are safe enough in reality at the villa, but Monsieur Douaille is nervous. The affair of last night terrified him. The reason for these things I, of course, know nothing of, but it seems that Monsieur Douaille is very anxious indeed to keep his a.s.sociation with my august master and Herr Selingman as secret as possible. He has declined most positively to set foot again within the Villa Mimosa. Many plans have been suggested. This is the one adopted.
For some weeks a German down in Monaco, a shipping agent, has had a yacht in the harbour for hire. He has approached Mr. Grex several times, not knowing his ident.i.ty; ignorant, indeed, of the fact that the Grand Duke himself possesses one of the finest yachts afloat. However, that is nothing. Mr. Grex thought suddenly of the yacht. He suggested it to the others. They were enthusiastic. The yacht is to be hired for a week, or longer if necessary, and used only to-night. Behold the wonderful good-fortune of the affair! It is I who have been selected by my master to proceed to Monaco to make arrangements with the German, Herr Schwann.
I am on my way there at the moment."
"A yacht?" Hunterleys repeated.
"There are wonderful things to be thought of," Frenhofer a.s.serted eagerly. "Consider, monsieur! The yacht of this man Schwann has never been seen by my master. Consider, too, that aboard her there must be a dozen hiding-places. The crew has been brought together from anywhere.
They can be bought to a man. There is only one point, monsieur, which should be arranged before I enter upon this last and, for me, most troublesome and dangerous enterprise."
"And that?" Hunterleys enquired.
"My own position," Frenhofer declared solemnly. "I am not greedy or covetous. My ambitions have long been fixed. To serve an Imperial Russian n.o.bleman has been no pleasure for me. St. Petersburg has been a prison. I have been moved to the right or to the left as a machine. It is as a machine only I have lived. Always I have longed for Paris. So month by month I have saved. After to-night I must leave my master"s employ. The risk will be too great if monsieur indeed accepts my proposition and carries it out. I need but a matter of ten thousand francs to complete my savings."
The man"s white face shone eagerly in the dim light of the gloomy little apartment. His eyes glittered. He waited almost breathlessly.
"Frenhofer," Hunterleys said slowly, "so far as I have been concerned indirectly in these negotiations with you, my instructions to my agent have been simple and definite. We have never haggled. Your name was known to me eight years ago, when you served us in St. Petersburg and served us well. You have done the same thing now and you have behaved with rare intelligence. Within the course of an hour I shall transfer ten thousand francs to the account of Francois Frenhofer at the English Bank here."
The eyes of the man seemed suddenly like pinp.r.i.c.ks of fire.