I stretched out my hand in the darkness to stop him. He had gone.
I leant forward and whispered to Francis:
"When you hear a shout, we make a dash for it!"
I felt him look at me in surprise--it was too dark to see his face.
"Right!" he whispered back.
Now to the left we heard voices shouting and saw torches gleaming red among the trees. To right and rear answering shouts resounded.
Again the patrols met at the plank above our heads, and again their departing footsteps rustled in the leaves.
The murmur of voices grew nearer. We could faintly smell the burning resin of the torches.
Then a wild yell rent the forest. The voice above us shouted "Halt!" but the echo was lost in the deafening report of a rifle.
Francis caught Monica by the wrist and dragged her forward. We went plunging and crashing through the tangle of the ravine. We heard a second shot and a third, commands were shouted, the red glare deepened in the sky....
Monica collapsed quite suddenly at my feet. She never uttered a sound, but fell p.r.o.ne, her face as white as paper. Without a word we picked her up between us and went on, stumbling, gasping, coughing, our clothes rent and torn, the blood oozing from the deep scratches on our faces and hands.
At length our strength gave out. We laid Monica down in the ravine and drew the under growth over her, then we crawled in under the brambles exhausted, beat.
Dawn was streaking the sky with lemon when a dog jumped sniffing down into our hiding-place. Francis and Monica were asleep.
A man stood at the top of the ravine looking down on us. He carried a gun over his shoulder.
"Have you had an accident?" he said kindly.
He spoke in Dutch.
CHAPTER XXI
RED TABS EXPLAINS
From the Argyllshire hills winter has stolen down upon us in the night.
Behind him he has left his white mantle, and it now lies outspread from the topmost mountain peaks to the softly lapping tide at the black edges of the loch. Yet as I sit adding the last words to this plain account of a curious episode in my life, the wintry scene dissolves before my eyes, and I see again that dawn in the forest ... Francis and Monica, sleeping side by side, like the babes in the wood, half covered with leaves, the eager, panting retriever, and myself, poor, ragged scarecrow, staring openmouthed at the Dutchman whose kindly enquiry has just revealed to me the wondrous truth ... that we are safe across the frontier.
What a disproportionate view one takes of events in which one is the princ.i.p.al actor! The great issues vanish away, the little things loom out large. When I look back on that morning I encounter in my memory no recollection of extravagant demonstrations of joy at our delivery, no hysteria, no heroics. But I find a fragrant remembrance of a glorious hot bath and an epic breakfast in the house of that kindly Dutchman, followed by a whirlwind burst of hospitality on our arrival at the house of van Urutius, which was not more than ten miles from the fringe of the forest.
Madame van Urutius took charge of Monica, who was promptly sent to bed, whilst Francis and I went straight on to Rotterdam, where we had an interview at the British Consulate, with the result that we were able to catch the steamer for England the next day.
As the result of various telegrams which Francis dispatched from Rotterdam, a car was waiting for us on our arrival at Fenchurch Street the next evening. In it we drove off for an interview with my brother"s Chief. Francis insisted that I should hand over personally the portion of the doc.u.ment in our possession.
"You got hold of it, Des," he said, "and it"s only fair that you should get all the credit. I have Clubfoot"s dispatch-box to show as the result of my trip. It"s only a pity we could not have got the other half out of the cloak-room at Rotterdam."
We were shown straight in to the Chief. I was rather taken aback by the easy calm of his manner in receiving us.
"How are you, Okewood?" he said, nodding to Francis. "This your brother?
How d"ye do?"
He gave me his hand and was silent. There was a distinct pause. Feeling distinctly embarra.s.sed, I lugged out my portfolio, extracted the three slips of paper and laid them on the desk before the Chief.
"I"ve brought you something," I said lamely.
He picked up the slips of paper and looked at them for a moment. Then he lifted a cardboard folder from the desk in front of him, opened it and displayed the other half of the Kaiser"s letter, the fragment I had believed to be reposing in a bag at Rotterdam railway station. He placed the two fragments side by side. They fitted exactly. Then he closed the folder, carried it across the room to a safe and locked it up. Coming back, he held out his two hands to us, giving the right to me, the left to Francis.
"You have done very well," he said. "Good boys! Good boys!"
"But that other half ..." I began.
"Your friend Ashcroft is by no means such a fool as he looks," the Chief chuckled. "He did a wise thing. He brought your two letters to me. I saw to the rest. So, when your brother"s telegram arrived from Rotterdam, I got the other half of the letter out of the safe; I thought I"d be ready for you, you see!"
"But how did you know we had the remaining portion of the letter?" I asked.
The Chief chuckled again.
"My young men don"t wire for cars to meet "em at the station when they have failed," he replied. "Now, tell me all about it!"
So I told him my whole story from the beginning.
When I had finished, he said:
"You appear to have a very fine natural disposition for our game, Okewood. It seems a pity to waste it in regimental work ..."
I broke in hastily.
"I"ve got a few weeks" sick leave left," I said, "and after that I was looking forward to going back to the front for a rest. This sort of thing is too exciting for me!"
"Well, well," answered the Chief, "we"ll see about that afterwards. In the meantime, we shall not forget what you have done ... and I shall see that it is not forgotten elsewhere."
On that we left him. It was only outside that I remembered that he had told me nothing of what I was burning to know about the origin and disappearance of the Kaiser"s letter.
It was my old friend, Red Tabs, whom I met on one of our many visits to mysterious but obviously important officials, that finally cleared up for me the many obscure points in this adventure of mine. When he saw me he burst out laughing.
""Pon my soul," he grinned, "you seem to be able to act on a hint, don"t you?"
Then he told me the story of the Kaiser"s letter.
"There is no need to speak of the contents of this amazing letter," he began, "for you are probably more familiar with them than I am. The date alone will suffice ... July 31st, 1914 ... it explains a great deal. The last day of July was the moment when the peace of Europe was literally trembling in the balance. You know the Emperor"s wayward, capricious nature, his eagerness for fame and military glory, his morbid terror of the unknown. In that fateful last week of July he was torn between opposing forces. On the one side was ranged the whole of the Prussian military party, led by the Crown Prince and the Emperor"s own immediate entourage; on the other, the record of prosperity which years of peace had conferred on his realms. He had to choose between his own megalomania craving for military laurels, on the one hand, and, on the other, that place in history as the Prince of Peace for which, in his gentler moments, he has so often hankered.
"The Kaiser is a man of moods. He sat down and penned this letter in a fit of despondency and indecision, when the vision of Peace seemed fairer to him than the spectre of War. G.o.d knows what violent emotion impelled him to write this extraordinary appeal to his English friend, an appeal which, if published, would convict him of the deepest treachery to his ally, but he wrote the letter and forthwith dispatched it to London. He did not make use of the regular courier: he sent the letter by a man of his own choosing, who had special instructions to hand the letter in person to Prince Lichnowski, the German amba.s.sador.
Lichnowski was to deliver the missive personally to its destined recipient.