"I tell you my blood runs cold when I think what those devils would have done if they had got hold of her. I know that sort of Berliners; they"d have torn the clothes off her back and mauled and beaten her without mercy. And it was only the fortunate fact that you were present and acted so bravely that saved her. I shall never forget it; never; and if there"s anything I can ever do to prove that I mean what I say, I shall grip the chance with both hands."
"You are very kind, sir."
"Don"t talk in that way about kindness. I should be an ungrateful brute if I did not mean it. You can judge how I feel when I tell you that if my son had lived I would have him just like you;" and there was moisture in his eyes as he stretched out his hand and wrung mine impulsively.
That he was in earnest it seemed impossible to doubt. He sat looking at me steadily for a while and then surprised me. He leant forward and fixed his eyes on mine. "I want to ask you a question. Are you sure you have never seen me before?"
Rosa"s warning flashed across my thoughts. This might be a trap; so I returned his look with equal steadiness and shook my head. "I don"t recollect it, sir."
"Try to think. Try hard. Look back over the years to when you were a boy."
Of course I "tried," and equally of course failed.
He dropped back in his chair with a sigh which seemed to breathe the essence of sincere regret, and after a moment said with almost equal earnestness:
"You know all I have said to you; you believe it, believe that I am really a friend to you?"
"Of course, sir. No one could speak as you have otherwise," I replied, smiling. It was a queer question.
"Then, believing it, is there anything you would care to tell me?"
What the d.i.c.kens did this mean? I smothered my doubts under another smile and then nodded. "There is one thing, sir." His face lighted and he was all expectation and interest on the instant.
"It"s about the man you mentioned yesterday--Count von Erstein."
His look changed directly. All the light and eagerness died away and he put his cigar back in his lips. "Oh, about him, is it? Well?" he asked, as if the subject didn"t interest him in the slightest.
But he listened carefully to the account of the interview with von Erstein, squinting at me curiously whenever Nessa"s name was mentioned, and seemed sufficiently interested to put some questions about her.
"An ugly story, my boy, very ugly; although I"m not much surprised, knowing the man. But why have you told me?"
"Because I wish you to be prepared if he still tries to carry out his infernal scheme."
He smiled. "And because you"re naturally indignant, eh?"
"I am. For my cousin"s sake. The two are very old friends."
"I see. Then it"s not for the girl"s own sake?"
What the deuce was he driving at? His manner kept me guessing all the time. "Partly for her sake, of course. That sort of beastliness always makes me wild."
"I can understand that, my boy, and am glad to hear it. Just what I should expect of you. Is she pretty?"
"I suppose she is in an English way," I replied, shrugging.
"It"s not because she _is_ English that you feel like this?"
"I hope I should feel much the same if she was a Hottentot, sir."
"I wish all our young fellows were the same. Well, for your sake, I"ll see that she comes to no harm. I presume, however, that you are quite sure she is not really a spy? Very serious, just now, you know."
"My cousin is, and she has known her many years."
"Then why doesn"t the girl go home?"
"It"s her one absorbing wish, sir. She has been trying for months to get permission, but von Erstein has managed to stop it."
He nodded once or twice and leant back in his chair thinking until he glanced at the clock and rose. "Time"s up. I must get back. I make a point of being back always to the tick. It"s a hobby of mine. I"ll think over all you"ve told me, for I"m interested in it; far more so than you may imagine. I"ll make an inquiry or two about this Miss Caldicott, and if it"s all right, she shall go home. You can tell your cousin so. But it"s a long way and a bad time for her to travel alone."
"I don"t think she would mind that a bit, sir."
"You make a very earnest champion, my boy; but let me give you a hint.
Don"t let any one else get the same idea. I mustn"t take you away with me now, unless you wish to make an enemy of my wife. You must stay and be heroized for a while. Now mind, don"t fail to come to me, if you"re in any sort of difficulty," he said.
"I certainly will come, sir."
As we went out into the hall and were shaking hands, he said, "By the way, I"ve had the doctor"s report about you; and Gorlitz is very strong about our sending you to England to see if the environment would bring your memory back. What think you?"
It was all I could manage to prevent him seeing what I did think of it in reality, but I stammered, "I"m quite in your hands, sir."
He laughed softly and with such meaning. "Perhaps we could kill two birds with one stone, then. How would it do for you to take this Miss Caldicott there with you?" And without waiting to hear my reply he went, leaving me in such amazement that I could have almost shouted for joy.
But did he mean it? Or was it just a subtle test? A trap? I was worrying over this when his daughter came out to fetch me in for the "heroizing" business.
Nita was quite a pretty girl, and now that she had recovered from the previous day"s shock and had a rich colour in her cheeks and brightly shining eyes, I wasn"t surprised at Hans" infatuation.
"I do so want to speak to you alone," she said. "I want to thank----"
"My dear young lady, no one has been doing anything else since I entered the house. Do give me a breathing s.p.a.ce."
She laughed; and a particularly sweet merry laugh it was. "I understand; but this is something special; something else, I mean."
"Oh! Shall I guess?"
With a start and a vivid blush she dropped her eyes, fiddled nervously with her blouse for a moment, and then looked up and laughed again. "I don"t mind your guessing," she challenged.
"Something to do with----"
She interrupted with some vigorous nods. "You did tell some taradiddles though. Hans didn"t really do anything. I saw it all."
"If he had not rushed up to me just when I called him, my dear young lady, none of us would have got out of the sc.r.a.pe as easily as we did,"
I said seriously. It would never do for her to think small beer of her lover. "It was that and the way he went for the brutes that decided everything and sent them scuttling off."
"But he didn"t do anything, Herr La.s.sen!"
"Do you mean to tell me you didn"t see him knock that dark brute, the biggest of them I mean, head foremost into the gutter?"
"Did he really?" she cried, open-eyed.