"_Peste!_ but it was warm, Vizier," he said. "I am delighted at last to have the honour and the supreme pleasure of meeting you."
"Your Excellency," replied the Vizier, "the fame of Count Moranoff has for long inspired me with an intense wish that we should meet. Allah has at last granted the desire of my life. Will your Excellency seat yourself? Here is coffee _alla Turca_."
The count drew up his chair, and took the proffered cup. As he lit a cigarette, his eyes travelled appreciatively over the portraits of a dozen Dentons, famous in the service of their country. "It is fitting we should meet here," he said, "surrounded by these ill.u.s.trious gentlemen, who look on, but cannot move. It is prophetic."
"It is Kismet," said the Vizier gravely.
"Kismet, a.s.sisted by two statesmen," returned the Count. "Exactly. But I mustn"t lose time, Vizier, as our moments are precious." He put his hand into his breast pocket, and produced a doc.u.ment. "Here is the draft of our understanding, arranged so far as is possible with three thousand versts between us. Now we must discuss the final details. I have indicated my suggestions, and if they meet with your approval it will be possible for us to sign before you leave London."
The Persian watched the smoke rings float upward. "There is no haste,"
he said. ""Fruit ripens slowly under grey skies," as our poet sings."
"Quite so--quite so," said the Russian, conscious of an error. "This year--the next will do. Our treasury has many drains upon it. We are not anxious to add to the number."
The Vizier smoked imperturbably. "The skies are grey here," he said at length, "but this London holds some wonderful men. One I met yesterday--an American. He is young. His hair is still flaxen. Yet he spoke of money as though it grew on rose trees. Half a million roubles are as nothing to him. He gave that sum for an Italian picture--an old, shabby-looking thing such as my master would not place in his anterooms.
He owns oil mines, railways, banks. Allah! what does that flaxen-haired youth not own? My heart ached at the number of his possessions."
"These Americans talk," replied the Count. "Half they say is false, half exaggeration."
"Sometimes, no doubt," said the Vizier, "but not always. I know this man is rich. He is one of the new kings of the earth. We have already had a transaction together," and he sighed contentedly.
"There are kings and kings," replied the Russian. "There are also emperors. Your Excellency is now in negotiation with one who controls the destinies of countless millions--men and roubles. When last I saw his Majesty he said, "Tell his Excellency the Grand Vizier that I would his wisdom could be added to that of my counsellors. When the wishes of my heart respecting the new treaty are consummated he will honour me by accepting half a million roubles.""
The Persian gazed reflectively into s.p.a.ce. "Your master is great," he said, "and he is generous. His rewards make glad the hearts of poets. He is the joy of the poor. Would that I were a poet or poor. So should my voice praise him also."
The Russian"s eye gleamed, but he continued suavely:
"So said my royal master, "Half a million roubles shall be his when the treaty is signed; five hundred thousand more when the Russian flag floats in the Persian Gulf.""
The Persian leaned back resignedly.
"Great is the power of your master," he said. "As Russia is bigger than America, so does his power exceed that of the flaxen-haired gentleman I met yesterday. The Americans are numbered by tens, your master"s subjects by hundreds of millions. Besides, it is always more agreeable to deal with a first-cla.s.s diplomatist. Let me look at the draft."
Count Moranoff handed over the doc.u.ment. The Vizier read it slowly. The terms were fairly comprehensive. Behind his curtain Rivers breathed hard at their audacity, and his blood tingled at the thought that it rested with him to checkmate this daring move. The statesmen discoursed frankly, and there was no disguise of the object in view. India was eventually to be attacked by Russia, who was prepared to pay for facilities granted. The north-eastern province of Persia was a necessary factor of the scheme, and a railway was to be commenced at once from Astrabad to Meshed. But the most striking part of the plan was the acquisition by Russia of a port in the Persian Gulf. The Isle of Kishm was to be ceded to her. The only discussion between the two statesmen was with regard to the Island of Ashurada in the Caspian. The Vizier demanded its evacuation by Russia in partial payment for Kishm, but more particularly as a sop to the Persian people. After much demur this was finally agreed to by Moranoff, in addition to the annuity of two million roubles granted to the Shah.
The Vizier folded up the doc.u.ment.
"My secretary shall transcribe this to-morrow," he said, "and we can sign after our return from Windsor. Strange, is it not," he soliloquised, "that our former negotiations came to a head when the English Mission brought the Garter, and our new one is to be consummated while we are in the act of returning the compliment? These English are fated to be hoodwinked."
"When men such as you and I get together, my dear Vizier----" began the Russian sententiously. Then he stopped short, for the door had suddenly opened.
The Persian turned angrily, and then rose to his feet as a tall, richly-dressed man entered. It was the Prince Ali Azim.
"Vizier," said the Prince abruptly, "whom have you here? Your physician?"
The Vizier"s face had a.s.sumed a bland smile, and instinctively he endeavoured to cover the treaty. But the Prince saw the movement.
"Why hide the prescription, Vizier?" he said.
The Russian"s face grew livid, but the Vizier regained his usual composure.
"Your Royal Highness," he said, "permit me to present his Excellency Count Moranoff."
"Ten thousand pardons, Count," said the Prince, slightly returning the Count"s profound inclination. "You will, perhaps, understand my mistake when I tell you that the Vizier is far from well. He has, no doubt, concealed the fact from you, but he was too ill to accompany me this evening to the hall of music. Hence my surprise at finding him here. I fear that his extraordinary zeal for affairs has led him prematurely from his bed. I am sure that you would not wish him to trespa.s.s unduly on his strength."
"Your Royal Highness"s surmise is correct," said Moranoff. "It would, indeed, be an international calamity were the Vizier to break down. I hope I have not hastened that end." He again bowed profoundly to the Prince, refused the Vizier"s offer of a.s.sistance with his wraps, and then, with a cold adieu to him, left the room.
"Now, Hasan Kuli," thundered the Prince when they were alone, "what intrigue is this?"
"Your Royal Highness"s suspicions are uncalled for. Moranoff and I are old friends by correspondence. We had never met personally, and he naturally seized this opportunity."
"I did not know he was in England," said the Prince. "The Russian Amba.s.sador incidentally referred to him to-day as being in Petersburg. I left you in bed, full of toothache and indigestion. I return unexpectedly, and find you deliberating with a Russian who is supposed to be five hundred _farsakhs_ away. Give me that paper."
The Vizier reluctantly produced it, and the Prince read it through.
"Ah," he said, as he refolded it. "I see you are making a cat"s-paw of me again. My mission here is to do away with any ill-effects consequent on our treaty with Russia. You will remember that when we were fooling the English Mission in Teheran I knew nothing of the treaty just concluded with Russia. My uncle and you delighted to keep me in the dark; yet all the time it was I who did the work. Was it his Majesty the Shah who played at billiards and cards with the English? Was it you who fought them at lawn tennis. Bah! I laugh at the thought. But I played at all. I lost my money at cards and billiards, and I suffered defeat at lawn tennis till the perspiration rolled down me, and my legs gave way.
And you smoked and laughed, and got all the profit. I, who worked, got none. Now I have come over land and sea with the Order of the Lion and the Sun. Again I do the work--again I know nothing. I find you intriguing behind my back. You treat me as a child; but you forget that some day I may be Shah. You play with fire, Vizier."
"Your Royal Highness, I beg you to believe that I have acted for what I thought was the benefit of our country."
"And your own pocket," added the Prince. "How much plunder do you get out of this?"
The Vizier held up his hands in horror. "Your Royal Highness," he said, "is nothing ever done disinterestedly--from pure patriotism?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "SUDDENLY HE ROSE, TOOK THE DRAFT OF THE TREATY, WENT TO THE DESPATCH BOXES, AND PLACED IT IN ONE OF THEM."
(_p. 175._)]
"Not by Hasan Kuli," sneered the Prince. "Please save yourself useless declamation. You may as well know my terms at once. The price of my acquiescence in this matter is one million roubles."
The Vizier gasped.
"One million roubles!" he exclaimed. "Does money grow?"
"So far as I know, it does not," replied the Prince acidly. "But you may as well spare yourself unnecessary questions. These are my terms.
Arrange with Moranoff to-morrow, or take it from your own profit--I care not which; but unless a portion of the money is forthcoming before we leave this cursed land I will----"
"You will betray us?"
"I do not explain my intentions to Viziers," replied the young man haughtily. "You understand me, I hope. Here is your treaty." He tossed the doc.u.ment on the table and left.
The Vizier threw himself on a sofa, and groaned aloud. He lay there long--so long that Rivers, behind the curtain, was stiff and weary. And there was the Vizier, now apparently dozing at intervals--perhaps going to make a night of it.
Suddenly he rose, took the draft of the treaty, went to the despatch boxes, and placed it in one of them. His body intervened between Rivers"
view of them, but the watcher followed his movements as best he could.
Then the Vizier turned to the door, and clicked out the light as he pa.s.sed through.
Rivers stretched himself, but he did not venture to stir from behind the curtain for some time. At length he stepped out, turned on his portable electric light, crossed the room, and stood before the despatch boxes.