"I am not pretending; I am drinking it," she smiled.
"Yes, yes," I said, "but you know what I mean. It seems to me so un-German!"
They both looked at me rather hard.
"I"m afraid," said Miss Burnett, "that we of the secret service grow terribly cosmopolitan. Our habits are those of no country--or rather of all countries."
"I had almost forgotten," said Tiel, "that I once thought and felt like Mr Belke." And then he added this singular opinion: "It is Germany"s greatest calamity--greater even than the coming in of Britain against her, or the Battle of the Marne--that those who guide her destinies have not forgotten it too."
"What do you mean?" I demanded, a little indignantly I must own.
"At every tea-party for many years Germany has talked about what interested herself--and that was chiefly war. At no tea-party has she tried to learn the thoughts and interests of the other guests. In consequence she does not yet understand the forces against her, why they act as they do, and how strong they are. But her enemies understand too well."
"You mean that she has been honest and they dishonest?"
"Yes," said Miss Burnett promptly and with a little smile, "my brother means that in order really to deceive people one has to act as we are acting now."
I laughed.
"But unfortunately now there is no one to deceive!"
She laughed too.
"But they might suddenly walk in!"
Tiel was not a frequent laugher, but he condescended to smile.
"Remember, Belke," he said, "I warned you on the first night we met that you must not only talk but think in English. If we don"t do that constantly and continually when no one is watching us, how can we count on doing it constantly and continually when some one _may_ be watching us?"
"Personally I should think it sufficient to wait till some one _was_ watching," I said.
"There speaks Germany," smiled Tiel.
"Germany disdains to act a part all the time!" I cried.
I confess I was nettled by his tone, but his charming "sister" disarmed me instantly.
"Mr Belke means that he wants footlights and an orchestra and an audience before he mutters "Hush! I hear her coming!" He doesn"t believe in saying "Hush!" in the corner of every railway carriage or under his umbrella. And I really think it makes him much less alarming company!"
"You explain things very happily, Eileen," said Tiel.
I was watching her face (for which there was every excuse!) and I saw that she started ever so slightly when he called her by her first name.
This pleased me--I must confess it. It showed that they had not played this farce of brother and sister together before, and already I had begun to dislike a little the idea that they were old and intimate confederates. I also fancied that it showed she did not quite enjoy the familiarity. But she got her own back again instantly.
"It is my one desire to enlighten you, Alexander," she replied with a very serious air.
I could not help laughing aloud, and I must confess that Tiel laughed frankly too.
The next question that I remember our discussing was one of very immediate and vital interest to us all. It began with a remark by Eileen (as I simply must call her behind her back; "Miss Burnett"
smacks too much of Tiel"s disguises--and besides it is too British).
We were talking of the English, and she said--
"Well, anyhow they are not a very suspicious people. Look at this little party!"
"Sometimes I feel that they are almost incredibly unsuspicious," I said seriously. "In Germany this house would surely be either visited or watched!"
Tiel shook his head.
"In Kiel or Wilhelmshaven an English party could live just as unmolested," he replied, "provided that not the least trace of suspicion was aroused _at the outset_. That is the whole secret of my profession. One takes advantages of the fact that even the most wary and watchful men take the greater part of their surroundings for granted. The head of any War Office--German, French, English, or whatever it may be--doesn"t suddenly conceive a suspicion of one of his clerks, unless something in the clerk"s conduct calls his attention.
If, then, it were possible to enter the War Office, looking and behaving exactly like one of the clerks, suspicion would not _begin_.
It is the beginning one has to guard against."
"Why don"t you enter the British War Office, then?" asked Eileen with a smile.
"Because, unfortunately, they know all the clerks intimately by sight.
In this case they expected a minister whom n.o.body knew. The difficulty of the pa.s.sport with its photograph was got over by a little ingenuity." (He threw me a quick grim smile.) "Thus I was able to appear as a person fully expected, and as long as I don"t do anything inconsistent with the character, why should any one throw even so much as an inquisitive glance in my direction. Until suspicion _begins_, we are as safe here as in the middle of Berlin. Once it begins--well, it will be a very different story."
"And you don"t think my coming will rouse any suspicion?" asked Eileen, with, for the first time (I fancied), a faint suggestion of anxiety.
"Suspicion? Certainly not! Just think. Put yourself in the shoes of the neighbours in the parish, or even of any naval officer who might chance to learn you were here. What is more natural than that the minister who--at the request of the people--is staying a week longer than he intended, should get his sister to look after him? The danger-point in both cases was pa.s.sed when we got into the islands. We know that there was no suspicion roused in either case."
"How do you know?" I interposed.
"Another quality required for this work," replied Tiel with a detached air, "is enough imagination to foresee the precautions that will be required. One wants to establish precaution behind precaution, just as an army establishes a series of defensive positions. In this case I have got our good friend Ashington watching closely for the first evidence of doubt or inquiry. So that I _know_ that both my sister and I pa.s.sed the barrier without raising a question in anybody"s mind."
"But how do you know that Ashington can be absolutely relied on?" I persisted.
"Yes," put in Eileen, "I was wondering too."
"Because Ashington will certainly share my fate--whatever that may be,"
said Tiel grimly. "He knows that; in fact he knows that I have probably taken steps to ensure that happening, in case there might be any loophole for him."
"But can"t a man turn King"s evidence (isn"t that the term?) and get pardoned?" asked Eileen.
"Not a naval officer," said Tiel.
"No," I agreed. "I must say that for the British Navy. An officer would have no more chance of pardon in it than in our own navy."
"Well," smiled Eileen, "I feel relieved! Don"t you, Mr Belke?"
"Yes," I said, "I begin to understand the whole situation more clearly.
I pray that suspicion may not _begin_!"
"In that case," said Tiel, "you realise now, perhaps, why we have to keep up acting, whether any one is watching us or not."
"Yes," I admitted, "I begin to see your reasons a little better. But why didn"t you tell me all this before?"
"All what?"