Armitage threw down the pen and read what he had written with care. Then he wrote as signature the initials F.A., inclosed the note in an envelope and addressed it, pondered again, laughed and slapped his knee and went into his room, where he rummaged about until he found a small seal beautifully wrought in bronze and a bit of wax. Returning to the table he lighted a candle, and deftly sealed the letter. He held the red scar on the back of the envelope to the lamp and examined it with interest. The lines of the seal were deep cut, and the impression was perfectly distinct, of F.A. in English script, linked together by the bar of the F.
"Oscar, what do you recommend that we do with the prisoner?"
"He should be tied to a tree and shot; or, perhaps, it would be better to hang him to the rafters in the kitchen. Yet he is heavy and might pull down the roof."
"You are a bloodthirsty wretch, and there is no mercy in you. Private executions are not allowed in this country; you would have us before a Virginia grand jury and our own necks stretched. No; we shall send him back to his master."
"It is a mistake. If your Excellency would go away for an hour he should never know where the buzzards found this large carca.s.s."
"Tush! I would not trust his valuable life to you. Get up!" he commanded, and Oscar jerked Zmai to his feet.
"You deserve nothing at my hands, but I need a discreet messenger, and you shall not die to-night, as my worthy adjutant recommends. To-morrow night, however, or the following night--or any other old night, as we say in America--if you show yourself in these hills, my chief of staff shall have his way with you--buzzard meat!"
"The orders are understood," said Oscar, thrusting the revolver into the giant"s ribs.
"Now, Zmai, blacksmith of Toplica, and a.s.sa.s.sin at large, here is a letter for Monsieur Chauvenet. It is still early. When you have delivered it, bring me back the envelope with Monsieur"s receipt written right here, under the seal. Do you understand?"
It had begun to dawn upon Zmai that his life was not in immediate danger, and the light of intelligence kindled again in his strange little eyes.
Lest he might not fully grasp the errand with which Armitage intrusted him, Oscar repeated what Armitage had said in somewhat coa.r.s.er terms.
Again through the moonlight strode the three--out of Armitage"s land to the valley road and to the same point to which Shirley Claiborne had only a few days before been escorted by the mountaineer.
There they sent the Servian forward to the Springs, and Armitage went home, leaving Oscar to wait for the return of the receipt.
It was after midnight when Oscar placed it in Armitage"s hands at the bungalow.
"Oscar, it would be a dreadful thing to kill a man," Armitage declared, holding the empty envelope to the light and reading the line scrawled beneath the unbroken wax. It was in French:
"You are young to die, Monsieur."
"A man more or less!" and Oscar shrugged his shoulders.
"You are not a good churchman. It is a grievous sin to do murder."
"One may repent; it is so written. The people of your house are Catholics also."
"That is quite true, though I may seem to forget it. Our work will be done soon, please G.o.d, and we shall ask the blessed sacrament somewhere in these hills."
Oscar crossed himself and fell to cleaning his rifle.
CHAPTER XIX
CAPTAIN CLAIBORNE ON DUTY
When he came where the trees were thin, The moon sat waiting there to see; On her worn palm she laid her chin, And laughed awhile in sober glee To think how strong this knight had been.
--William Vaughn Moody.
In some mystification Captain Richard Claiborne packed a suit-case in his quarters at Fort Myer. Being a soldier, he obeyed orders; but being human, he was also possessed of a degree of curiosity. He did not know just the series of incidents and conferences that preceded his summons to Washington, but they may be summarized thus:
Baron von Marhof was a cautious man. When the young gentlemen of his legation spoke to him in awed whispers of a cigarette case bearing an extraordinary device that had been seen in Washington he laughed them away; then, possessing a curious and thorough mind, he read all the press clippings relating to the false Baron von Kissel, and studied the heraldic emblems of the Schomburgs. As he pondered, he regretted the death of his eminent brother-in-law, Count Ferdinand von Stroebel, who was not a man to stumble over so negligible a trifle as a cigarette case.
But Von Marhof himself was not without resources. He told the gentlemen of his suite that he had satisfied himself that there was nothing in the Armitage mystery; then he cabled Vienna discreetly for a few days, and finally consulted Hilton Claiborne, the emba.s.sy"s counsel, at the Claiborne home at Storm Springs.
They had both gone hurriedly to Washington, where they held a long conference with the Secretary of State. Then the state department called the war department by telephone, and quickly down the line to the commanding officer at Fort Myer went a special a.s.signment for Captain Claiborne to report to the Secretary of State. A great deal of perfectly sound red tape was reduced to minute particles in these manipulations; but Baron von Marhof"s business was urgent; it was also of a private and wholly confidential character. Therefore, he returned to his cottage at Storm Springs, and the Washington papers stated that he was ill and had gone back to Virginia to take the waters.
The Claiborne house was the pleasantest place in Storm Valley, and the library a comfortable place for a conference. d.i.c.k Claiborne caught the gravity of the older men as they unfolded to him the task for which they had asked his services. The Baron stated the case in these words:
"You know and have talked with this man Armitage; you saw the device on the cigarette case; and asked an explanation, which he refused; and you know also Chauvenet, whom we suspect of complicity with the conspirators at home. Armitage is not the false Baron von Kissel--we have established that from Senator Sanderson beyond question. But Sanderson"s knowledge of the man is of comparatively recent date--going back about five years to the time Armitage purchased his Montana ranch. Whoever Armitage may be, he pays his bills; he conducts himself like a gentleman; he travels at will, and people who meet him say a good word for him."
"He is an agreeable man and remarkably well posted in European politics,"
said Judge Claiborne. "I talked with him a number of times on the _King Edward_ and must say that I liked him."
"Chauvenet evidently knows him; there was undoubtedly something back of that little trick at my supper party at the Army and Navy," said d.i.c.k.
"It might be explained--" began the Baron; then he paused and looked from father to son. "Pardon me, but they both manifest some interest in Miss Claiborne."
"We met them abroad," said d.i.c.k; "and they both turned up again in Washington."
"One of them is here, or has been here in the valley--why not the other?"
asked Judge Claiborne.
"But, of course, Shirley knows nothing of Armitage"s whereabouts," d.i.c.k protested.
"Certainly not," declared his father.
"How did you make Armitage"s acquaintance?" asked the Amba.s.sador. "Some one must have been responsible for introducing him--if you can remember."
d.i.c.k laughed.
"It was in the Monte Rosa, at Geneva. Shirley and I had been chaffing each other about the persistence with which Armitage seemed to follow us.
He was taking _dejeuner_ at the same hour, and he pa.s.sed us going out.
Old Arthur Singleton--the ubiquitous--was talking to us, and he nailed Armitage with his customary zeal and introduced him to us in quite the usual American fashion. Later I asked Singleton who he was and he knew nothing about him. Then Armitage turned up on the steamer, where he made himself most agreeable. Next, Senator Sanderson vouched for him as one of his Montana const.i.tuents. You know the rest of the story. I swallowed him whole; he called at our house on several occasions, and came to the post, and I asked him to my supper for the Spanish attache."
"And now, d.i.c.k, we want you to find him and get him into a room with ourselves, where we can ask him some questions," declared Judge Claiborne.
They discussed the matter in detail. It was agreed that d.i.c.k should remain at the Springs for a few days to watch Chauvenet; then, if he got no clue to Armitage"s whereabouts, he was to go to Montana, to see if anything could be learned there.
"We must find him--there must be no mistake about it," said the Amba.s.sador to Judge Claiborne, when they were alone. "They are almost panic-stricken in Vienna. What with the match burning close to the powder in Hungary and clever heads plotting in Vienna this American end of the game has dangerous possibilities."
"And when we have young Armitage--" the Judge began.
"Then we shall know the truth."
"But suppose--suppose," and Judge Claiborne glanced at the door, "suppose Charles Louis, Emperor-king of Austria-Hungary, should die--to-night--to-morrow--"