Part 69 (1/2)
Go back to your painting and your clever drawing and your music; any one of these is certain to give you a living in time. And in that direction alone your happiness lies.”
She leaned forward and kissed the girl's hair where it was fine and blond, close to the snowy forehead.
”If war comes,” she said, ”you and James will have to go home, like two good children when the curfew rings.”
She laughed, pushed Rue away, lighted another cigarette, and, casting a glance partly ironical, partly provocative, at the good-looking young man on the sofa, said:
”As for you, James, I don't worry about you. Impudence will always carry you through where diplomacy fails you. Now, tell me all about these three unpleasant sporting characters who occupied the train with you.”
Neeland laughed.
”It seems that a well-known gambler in New York, called Captain Quint, is backing them; and somebody higher up is backing Quint----”
”Probably the Turkish Emba.s.sy at Was.h.i.+ngton,” interposed the Princess, coolly. ”I'm sorry, Jim; pray go on.”
”The Turkish Emba.s.sy?” he repeated, surprised that she should guess.
”Yes; and the German Emba.s.sy is backing that. There you are, Jim. That is the sequence as far as your friend, Captain Quint. Now, who comes next in the scale?”
”This man--Brandes--and the little chalk-faced creature, Stull; and the other one, with the fox face--Doc Curfoot.”
”I see. And then?”
”Then, as I gathered, there are several gentlemen wearing Teutonic names--who are to go into partners.h.i.+p with them--one named Kestner, one called Theodore Weishelm, and an exceedingly oily Eurasian gentleman with whom I became acquainted on the _Volhynia_--one Karl Breslau----”
”Breslau!” exclaimed the Princess. ”_Now_ I understand.”
”Who is he, Princess?”
”He is the most notorious international spy in the world--a protean individual with aliases, professions, and experiences sufficient for an entire jail full of criminals. His father was a German Jew; his mother a Circa.s.sian girl; he was educated in Germany, France, Italy, and England. He has been a member of the socialist group in the Reichstag under one name, a member of the British Parliament under another; he did dirty work for Abdul Hamid; dirtier for Enver Bey.
”He is here, there, everywhere; he turns up in Brazil one day, and is next in evidence in Moscow. What he is so eternally about G.o.d only knows: what Chancellery he serves, which he betrays, is a question that occupies many uneasy minds this very hour, I fancy.
”But of this I, personally, am now satisfied; Karl Breslau is responsible for the robbery of your papers today, and the entire affair was accomplished under his direction!”
”And yet I know,” said Neeland, ”that after he and Kestner tried to blow up the captain's cabin and the bridge aboard the _Volhynia_ yesterday morning at a little after two o'clock, he and Kestner must have jumped overboard in the Mersey River off Liverpool.”
”Without doubt a boat was watching your s.h.i.+p.”
”Yes; Weishelm had a fis.h.i.+ng smack to pick them up. Ilse Dumont must have gone with them, too.”
”All they had to do was to touch at some dock, go ash.o.r.e, and telegraph to their men here,” said the Princess.
”That, evidently, is what they did,” admitted Neeland ruefully.
”Certainly. And by _this_ time they may be here, too. They could do it. I haven't any doubt that Breslau, Kestner, and Ilse Dumont are here in Paris at this moment.”
”Then I'll wager I know where they are!”