"My information leads me to think that a flotilla of torpedo boats is being kept ready in the English ports for a night attack on our fleet during its progress through the North Sea."
I smiled disdainfully.
"That is a false report. I have asked you to call here in the hope that I might find you ready to a.s.sist me in discrediting it."
The Russian continued to watch me out of his narrow eyes.
"And, also," I added, "to a.s.sist me in preventing any attempt to give color to it."
"I am not sure that I understand you, Monsieur V----."
"That is quite possible. I will speak more plainly. There are some prophets who take a little trouble to make their prophesies come true. I wish to know whether you and your friends have determined that this particular prophesy shall come true--perhaps to fulfill it yourselves?"
Petrovitch frowned and compressed his lips.
"So that is why you got me here?"
"I wished to see," I said blandly, "if it was possible for me to offer you terms which might induce you to alter your views altogether--in short, to stop the war."
The financier looked thunderstruck.
"Monsieur V----, you don"t know what you ask! But you--would a million rubles tempt you to come over, to be neutral, even?"
"I am a member, by adoption, of the imperial family of j.a.pan," I replied laconically.
Petrovitch was past surprise. If I had informed him that I was the Mikado in disguise, I think he would have taken it as a matter of course.
"This war is worth ten millions to me," he confessed hoa.r.s.ely.
I shook my head with resignation.
"The price is too high. We must be enemies, not friends, I perceive."
The author of the war, who had regained his self-possession, did not blanch at these words.
"I regret it," he said with a courteous inclination.
"You have reason to."
He gave me a questioning glance.
"Up to the present I have been on the defensive," I explained. "I dislike violent measures. But from this moment I shall hold myself at liberty to use them."
"I am afraid I have gone rather too far," the promoter hesitated.
"You have drugged me. You have robbed me. You have murdered me."
"You are alive, however," he ventured to retort with an impudent smile.
"Unfortunately," I went on sternly, "in murdering me you exceeded your instructions."
"How----"
"I dreamed that I heard you tell your accomplice so," I put in, without giving him a chance to speak.
He ceased to meet my gaze.
"You are therefore not even a political criminal. You are a common felon. As such I warn you that I shall execute you without notice, and without reprieve."
The Russian scowled fiercely.
"We will see about that," he bl.u.s.tered. "I have a loaded revolver in my pocket."
I waved my hand scornfully.
"Undeceive yourself, George Petrovitch. I am not proposing a duel. I cannot be expected to fight with a condemned murderer. I sentence you to death--and may the Lord have mercy on your soul."
"By what right?" he demanded furiously.
"I am accredited by the Emperor of j.a.pan to the Emperor of Russia.
This house is j.a.panese soil. Farewell!"
Petrovitch rose from his chair, wavering between indignation and alarm.
"I shall defend myself!" he exclaimed, edging slowly toward the door.
"You will do better to confess yourself. Is there no prayer that you wish to say?"
The Russian smiled incredulously.
"You seem very confident," he sneered.
I saw that it was useless to try to rouse him to a sense of his peril. I pointed to the door, and pressed a k.n.o.b on the wall.
The murderer made two steps from me, laid his fingers on the door-handle--and dropped dead instantly.
CHAPTER XXV
A CHANGE OF IDENt.i.tY
I now approach the crucial portion of my narrative.
The incidents already dealt with, though not without a certain interest, perhaps, for those who value exact information about political events, are comparatively unimportant, and have been given here chiefly in order to inspire confidence in what follows.
At all events, their truth is not likely to be disputed, and I have not thought it necessary, therefore, to insist on every corroborative detail.