"Yes!"
"There is no doubt but that, to a certain extent, the anti-English feeling of which you spoke exists! I have made other inquiries, and so far I am convinced!"
"So! The seed is sown! It has been sprinkled with a generous hand! Believe me, my friend, that for this country there are in store very great surprises. I speak as one who knows! I do know! So!"
Mr. Sabin was thoughtful. He looked into the fire and spoke musingly.
"Yet the ties of kindred and common origin are strong," he said. "It is hard to imagine an open rupture between the two great Saxon nations of the world!"
"The ties of kindred," said Mr. Sabin"s visitor, "are not worth the snap of a finger! So!"
He snapped his fingers with a report as sharp as a pistol-shot. Mr. Sabin started in his chair.
"It is the ties of kindred," he continued, "which breed irritability, not kindliness! I tell you, my friend, that there is a great storm gathering. It is not for nothing that the great hosts of my country are ruled by a war lord! I tell you that we are arming to the teeth, silently, swiftly, and with a purpose. It may seem to you a small thing, but let me tell you this--we are a jealous nation! And we have cause for jealousy. In whatever part of the world we put down our foot, it is trodden on by our ubiquitous cousins! Wherever we turn to colonise, we are too late; England has already secured the finest territory, the most fruitful of the land. We must either take her leavings or go a-begging! Wherever we would develope, we are held back by the commercial and colonising genius--it amounts to that--of this wonderful nation. The world of to-day is getting cramped. There is no room for a growing England and a growing Germany! So! one must give way, and Germany is beginning to mutter that it shall not always be her sons who go to the wall. You say that France is our natural enemy. I deny it! France is our historical enemy--nothing else! In military circles to-day a war with England would be wildly, hysterically popular; and sooner or later a war with England is as certain to come as the rising of the sun and the waning of the moon! I can tell you even now where the first blow will be struck! It is fixed! It is to come! So!"
"Not in Europe," Mr. Sabin said.
"Not in Europe or in Asia! The war-torch will be kindled in Africa!"
"The Transvaal!"
Mr. Sabin"s visitor smiled.
"It is in Africa," he said, "that English monopoly has been most galling to my nation. We too feel the burden of over-population; we too have our young blood making itself felt throughout the land, eager, impetuous, thirsting for adventure and freedom. We need new countries where these may develop, and at once ease and strengthen our fatherland. I have seen it written in one of the great English reviews that my country has not the instinct for colonisation. It is false! We have the instinct and the desire, but not the opportunity. England is like a great octopus. She is ever on the alert, thrusting out her suckers, and drawing in for herself every new land where riches lay. No country has ever been so suitable for us as Africa, and behold--it is as I have said. Already England has grabbed the finest and most to be desired of the land--she has it now in her mind to take one step further and acquire the whole. But my country has no mind to suffer it! We have played second fiddle to a weaker Power long enough. We want Africa, my friend, and to my mind and the mind of my master, Africa is worth having at all costs--listen--even at the cost of war!"
Mr. Sabin was silent for a moment. There was a faint smile upon his lips. It was a situation such as he loved. He began to feel indeed that he was making history.
"You have convinced me," he said at last. "You have taught me how to look upon European politics with new eyes. But there remains one important question. Supposing I break off my negotiations in other quarters, are you willing to pay my price?"
The Amba.s.sador waved his hand! It was a trifle!
"If what you give fulfils your own statements," he said, "you cannot ask a price which my master would not pay!"
Mr. Sabin moved a little in his chair. His eyes were bright. A faint tinge of colour was in his olive cheeks.
"Four years of my life," he said, "have been given to the perfecting of one branch only of my design; the other, which is barely completed, is the work of the only man in England competent to handle such a task. The combined result will be infallible. When I place in your hands a simple roll of papers and a small parcel, the future of this country is absolutely and entirely at your mercy. That is beyond question or doubt. To whomsoever I give my secret, I give over the destinies of England. But the price is a mighty one!"
"Name it," the Amba.s.sador said quietly. "A million, two millions? Rank? What is it?"
"For myself," Mr. Sabin said, "nothing!"
The other man started. "Nothing!"
"Absolutely nothing!"
The Amba.s.sador raised his hand to his forehead.
"You confuse me," he said.
"My conditions," Mr. Sabin said, "are these. The conquest of France and the restoration of the monarchy, in the persons of Prince Henri and his cousin, Princess Helene of Bourbon!"
"Ach!"
The little interjection shot from the Amba.s.sador"s lips with sharp, staccato emphasis! Then there was a silence--a brief, dramatic silence! The two men sat motionless, the eyes of each fastened upon the other. The Amba.s.sador was breathing quickly, and his eyes sparkled with excitement. Mr. Sabin was pale and calm, yet there were traces of nervous exhilaration in his quivering lips and bright eyes.
"Yes, you were right; you were right indeed," the Amba.s.sador said slowly. "It is a great price that you ask!"
Mr. Sabin laughed very softly.
"Think," he said. "Weigh the matter well! Mark first this fact. If what I give you has not the power I claim for it, our contract is at an end. I ask for nothing! I accept nothing. Therefore, you may a.s.sume that before you pay my price your own triumph is a.s.sured. Think! Reflect carefully! What will you owe to me! The humiliation of England, the acquisition of her colonies, the destruction of her commerce, and such a war indemnity as only the richest power on earth could pay. These things you gain. Then you are the one supreme Power in Europe. France is at your mercy! I will tell you why. The Royalist party have been gaining strength year by year, month by month, minute by minute! Proclaim your intentions boldly. The country will crumble up before you! It would be but a half-hearted resistance. France has not the temperament of a people who will remain for ever faithful to a democratic form of government. At heart she is aristocratic. The old n.o.bility have a life in them which you cannot dream of. I know, for I have tested it. It has been weary waiting, but the time is ripe! France is ready for the cry of "Vive le Roi! Vive la Monarchie!" I who tell you these things have proved them. I have felt the pulse of my country, and I love her too well to mistake the symptoms!"
The Amba.s.sador was listening with greedy ears--he was breathing hard through his teeth! It was easy to see that the glamour of the thing had laid hold of him. He foresaw for himself an immortal name, for his country a greatness beyond the wildest dreams of her most sanguine ministers. Bismarck himself had planned nothing like this! Yet he did not altogether lose his common sense.
"But Russia," he objected, "she would never sanction a German invasion of France."
Mr. Sabin smiled scornfully.
"You are a great politician, my dear Baron, and you say a thing like that! You amaze me! But of course the whole affair is new to you; you have not thought it out as I have done. Whatever happens in Europe, Russia will maintain the isolation for which geography and temperament have marked her out. She would not stir one finger to help France. Why should she? What could France give her in return? What would she gain by plunging into an exhausting war? To the core of his heart and the tips of his finger-nails the Muscovite is selfish! Then, again, consider this. You are not going to ruin France as you did before; you are going to establish a new dynasty, and not waste the land or exact a mighty tribute. Granted that sentiments of friendship exist between Russia and France, do you not think that Russia would not sooner see France a monarchy? Do you think that she would stretch out her little finger to aid a tottering republic and keep back a king from the throne of France? Mon Dieu! Never!"
Mr. Sabin"s face was suddenly illuminated. A fire flashed in his dark eyes, and a note of fervent pa.s.sion quivered lifelike in his vibrating voice. His manner had all the abandon of one pleading a great cause, nursed by a great heart. He was a patriot or a poet, surely not only a politician or a mere intriguing adventurer. For a moment he suffered his enthusiasm to escape him. Then the mask was as suddenly dropped. He was himself again, calm, convincing, impenetrable.
As the echoes of his last interjection died away there was a silence between the two men. It was the Amba.s.sador at last who broke it. He was looking curiously at his companion.
"I must confess," he said slowly, "that you have fascinated me! You have done more, you have made me see dreams and possibilities which, set down upon paper, I should have mocked at. Mr. Sabin, I can no longer think of you as a person--you are a personage! We are here alone, and I am as secret as the grave; be so kind as to lift the veil of your incognito. I can no longer think of you as Mr. Sabin. Who are you?"
Mr. Sabin smiled a curious smile, and lit a cigarette from the open box before him.
"That," he said, pushing the box across the table, "you may know in good time if, in commercial parlance, we deal. Until that point is decided, I am Mr. Sabin. I do not even admit that it is an incognito."
"And yet," the Amba.s.sador said, with a curious lightening of his face, as though recollection had suddenly been vouchsafed to him, "I fancy that if I were to call you----"
Mr. Sabin"s protesting hand was stretched across the table.
"Excuse me," he interrupted, "let it remain between us as it is now! My incognito is a necessity for the present. Let it continue to be--Mr. Sabin! Now answer me. All has been said that can be said between us. What is your opinion?"
The Amba.s.sador rose from his seat and stood upon the hearthrug with his back to the fire. There was a streak of colour upon his sallow cheeks, and his eyes shone brightly underneath his heavy brows. He had removed his spectacles and was swinging them lightly between his thumb and forefinger.
"I will be frank with you," he said. "My opinion is a favourable one. I shall apply for leave of absence to-morrow. In a week all that you have said shall be laid before my master. Such as my personal influence is, it will be exerted on behalf of the acceptance of your scheme. The greatest difficulty will be, of course, in persuading the Emperor of its practicability--in plain words, that what you say you have to offer will have the importance which you attribute to it."
"If you fail in that," Mr. Sabin said, also rising, "send for me! But bear this in mind, if my scheme should after all be ineffective, if it should fail in the slightest detail to accomplish all that I claim for it, what can you lose? The payment is conditional upon its success; the bargain is all in your favour. I should not offer such terms unless I held certain cards. Remember, if there are difficulties send for me!"
"I will do so," the Amba.s.sador said as he b.u.t.toned his overcoat. "Now give me a limit of time for our decision."
"Fourteen days," Mr. Sabin said. "How I shall temporise with Lobenski so long I cannot tell. But I will give you fourteen days from to-day. It is ample!"
The two men exchanged farewells and parted. Mr. Sabin, with a cigarette between his teeth, and humming now and then a few bars from one of Verdi"s operas, commenced to carefully select a bagful of golf clubs from a little pile which stood in one corner of the room. Already they bore signs of considerable use, and he handled them with the care of an expert, swinging each one gently, and hesitating for some time between a wooden or a metal putter, and longer still between the rival claims of a bulger and a flat-headed bra.s.sey. At last the bag was full; he resumed his seat and counted them out carefully.
"Ten," he said to himself softly. "Too many; it looks amateurish."
Some of the steel heads were a little dull; he took a piece of chamois leather from the pocket of the bag and began polishing them. As they grew brighter he whistled softly to himself. This time the opera tune seemed to have escaped him; he was whistling the "Ma.r.s.eillaise!"
CHAPTER XVIII.
"HE HAS GONE TO THE EMPEROR!"
The Amba.s.sador, when he left Mr. Sabin"s house, stepped into a hired hansom and drove off towards Arlington Street. A young man who had watched him come out, from the other side of the way, walked swiftly to the corner of the street and stepped into a private brougham which was waiting there.
"To the Emba.s.sy," he said. "Drive fast!"
The carriage set him down in a few minutes at the house to which Densham and Harcutt had followed Mr. Sabin on the night of their first meeting with him. He walked swiftly into the hall.
"Is his Excellency within?" he asked a tall servant in plain dress who came forward to meet him.
"Yes, Monsieur Felix," the man answered; "he is dining very late to-night--in fact, he has not yet risen from the table."
"Who is with him?" Felix asked.
"It is a very small party. Madame la Princesse has just arrived from Paris, and his Excellency has been waiting for her."
He mentioned a few more names; there was no one of importance. Felix walked into the hall-porter"s office and scribbled a few words on half a sheet of paper, which he placed in an envelope and carefully sealed.
"Let his Excellency have this privately and at once," he said to the man; "I will go into the waiting room."
The man withdrew with the note, and Felix crossed the hall and entered a small room nearly opposite. It was luxuriously furnished with easy chairs and divans; there were cigars, and cigarettes, and decanters upon a round table. Felix took note of none of these things, nor did he sit down. He stood with his hands behind him, looking steadily into the fire. His cheeks were almost livid, save for a single spot of burning colour high up on his cheek-bone. His fingers twitched nervously, his eyes were dry and restlessly bright. He was evidently in a state of great excitement. In less than two minutes the door opened, and a tall, distinguished-looking man, grey headed, but with a moustache still almost black, came softly into the room. His breast glittered with orders, and he was in full Court dress. He nodded kindly to the young man, who greeted him with respect.
"Is it anything important, Felix?" he asked; "you are looking tired."
"Yes, your Excellency, it is important," Felix answered; "it concerns the man Sabin."
The Amba.s.sador nodded.
"Well," he said, "what of him? You have not been seeking to settle accounts with him, I trust, after our conversation, and your promise?"
Felix shook his head.
"No," he said. "I gave my word and I shall keep it! Perhaps you may some day regret that you interfered between us."
"I think not," the Prince replied. "Your services are valuable to me, my dear Felix; and in this country, more than any other, deeds of violence are treated with scant ceremony, and affairs of honour are not understood. No, I saved you from yourself for myself. It was an excellent thing for both of us."
"I trust," Felix repeated, "that your Excellency may always think so. But to be brief. The report from Cartienne is to hand."
The Amba.s.sador nodded and listened expectantly.
"He confirms fully," Felix continued, "the value of the doc.u.ments which are in question. How he obtained access to them he does not say, but his report is absolute. He considers that they justify fully the man Sabin"s version of them."
The Prince smiled.
"My own judgment is verified," he said. "I believed in the man from the first. It is good. By the bye, have you seen anything of Mr. Sabin to-day?"
"I have come straight," Felix said, "from watching his house."
"Yes?"
"The Baron von Knigenstein has been there alone, incognito, for more than an hour. I watched him go in--and watched him out."
The Prince"s genial smile vanished. His face grew suddenly as dark as thunder. The Muscovite crept out unawares. There was a fierce light in his eyes, and his face was like the face of a wolf; yet his voice when he spoke was low.
"So ho!" he said softly. "Mr. Sabin is doing a little flirting, is he? Ah!"
"I believe," the young man answered slowly, "that he has advanced still further than that. The Baron was there for an hour. He came out walking like a young man. He was in a state of great excitement."
The Prince sat down and stroked the side of his face thoughtfully.
"The great elephant!" he muttered. "Fancy such a creature calling himself a diplomatist! It is well, Felix," he added, "that I had finished my dinner, otherwise you would certainly have spoilt it. If they have met like this, there is no end to the possibilities of it. I must see Sabin immediately. It ought to be easy to make him understand that I am not to be trifled with. Find out where he is to-night, Felix; I must follow him."
Felix took up his hat.
"I will be back," he said, "in half an hour."
The Prince returned to his guests, and Felix drove off. When he returned his chief was waiting for him alone.
"Mr. Sabin," Felix announced, "left town half an hour ago."
"For abroad!" the Prince exclaimed, with flashing eyes. "He has gone to Germany!"
Felix shook his head.
"On the contrary," he said; "he has gone down into Norfolk to play golf."
"Into Norfolk to play golf!" the Prince repeated in a tone of scornful wonder. "Did you believe a story like that, Felix? Rubbish!"
Felix smiled slightly.
"It is quite true," he said. "Labanoff makes no mistakes, and he saw him come out of his house, take his ticket at King"s Cross, and actually leave the station."
"Are you sure that it is not a blind?" the Prince asked incredulously.
Felix shook his head.
"It is quite true, your Excellency," he said. "If you knew the man as well as I do, you would not be surprised. He is indeed a very extraordinary person--he does these sort of things. Besides, he wants to keep out of the way."