"And you meant to give me this warning all along?"
"I meant to save you from them. Do you not see, as long as we are together, as long as you are visiting me, and I am seen to be following you up, they will not interfere. If I manage the affair skilfully it may be weeks before they suspect that I am playing them false. I shall have my excuse ready. It is no disgrace to be foiled by A. V."
Again there was an interval of silence. The Princess prepared to go.
"Stay!" I protested. "I have not thanked you. Indeed, I do not seem to have heard all. You had some reason, surely, for wishing to preserve my life."
"And what does my reason matter?"
"It matters very much to me. Perhaps," I gave her a searching look, "perhaps the Dowager Czaritza has enlisted you on our side?"
The beautiful woman rose to her feet, and turned her face from me.
"Think so, if you will. I tell you it does not matter."
"And I tell you it does matter. Princess!"
"Don"t! Don"t speak to me, please! Let me go home. I am not well."
Trembling violently in every limb, she was making her way toward the door, when it was suddenly flung open, and the voice of the hotel servant announced:
"M. Petrovitch!"
The head of the Manchurian Syndicate walked in with a smile on his face, saw the Princess Y---- coming toward him, and stopped short, the smile changing to a dark frown.
CHAPTER XVII
A SUPERNATURAL INCIDENT
Whether because he saw that I was watching him, or because he placed his own interpretation on the circ.u.mstances, the war plotter changed his frown into a smile.
"I am glad to see, Princess," he said to the trembling woman, "that you have so soon found our good friend Mr. Sterling again."
The Princess Y---- gave him a glance which seemed to enjoin silence, bowed with grace, and left the room in charge of the servant who had announced M. Petrovitch.
The latter now advanced to greet me with every appearance of cordiality.
The last time I had met this well-dressed, delicate scamp, he had drugged and robbed me. Now I had just been told that he was setting a.s.sa.s.sins on my track.
But it is my rule always to cultivate friendly intercourse with my opponents. Few men can talk for long without exposing something of their inner thoughts. I wanted M. Petrovitch to talk.
Therefore I returned his greeting with equal cordiality, and made him sit down in the chair from which the Princess Y---- had just risen.
"You will be surprised to hear, no doubt, Mr. Sterling, that I have brought you an invitation from the Emperor."
"From what Emperor?" was the retort on the tip of my tongue.
Fortunately I suppressed it; there is no accomplishment so fatal to success in life as wit, except kindness.
I simply answered,
"I am not readily surprised, M. Petrovitch. Neither, I imagine, are you."
The financier smiled.
"May I call you M. V----?" he asked. "His majesty has told me who you are."
"Were you surprised by that?" I returned with sarcasm.
Petrovitch fairly laughed.
"I hear you have been denouncing me to Nicholas," he said lightly.
"Can"t I persuade you to let our poor little Czar alone. I a.s.sure you it is a waste of breath on your part, and you will only worry a well-meaning young man who has no head for business."
This was plain speaking. It argued no ordinary confidence on the part of the intriguer to speak in such a fashion of the Autocrat of All the Russias.
Already the interview was telling me something. Petrovitch must have some strong, secret hold on Nicholas II.
I shrugged my shoulders as I answered in my friendliest manner,
"I have no personal feeling against you, my dear Petrovitch. But to use drugs--come, you must admit that that was a strong measure!"
"I apologize!" laughed the Russian. "All the more as I find you were too many for us after all. I would give something to know how you managed to hide the letter you got through."
It was my turn to laugh. I had reason to feel satisfied. Weak as the Russian Emperor might be, it was evident that he had not betrayed my secret.
"Well, now," the promoter resumed, "all that being over, is there any reason why we should not be friends? Be frank with me. What end have you in view that is likely to bring us into collision?"
"There is no reason why I should not be frank with you," I answered, racking my brain for some story which the man before me might be likely to believe, "especially as I do not suppose that either of us is likely to report this conversation quite faithfully to his imperial majesty. I am a j.a.panese spy."
Petrovitch gave me a glance in which I thought I detected a mingling of incredulity and admiration.
"Really, you are a cool hand, my dear V----!"
"Why, is there anything in that to make us enemies? You are not going to pose as the zealous patriot, I hope. I thought we had agreed to be frank."
The financier bit his lip.
"Well, I do not deny that I am before all things a man of business,"
he returned. "If your friends the j.a.panese can make me any better offer than the one I have had from another quarter, I do not say."
"I will see what I can arrange for you," I answered, not wholly insincerely. "In the meantime, I think you said something about an invitation?"
"Oh, yes, from Nicholas. He wants to see you. He has some scheme or other in which he thinks that you and I can work together, and he wants us to be friends, accordingly."
"But we are friends, after to-day, I understand?"