Part 5 (2/2)
a.s.sured that he was not watched, he softly turned the handle of the door and entered. Louise was sitting up in her dressing-gown, drinking her coffee. He held up his finger and she greeted him only with a nod.
”Forgive me, Louise,” he whispered, ”I dared not knock, and I was obliged to see you at once.”
She smiled.
”It is of no consequence,” she said. ”One is always prepared here.
The porter, the ticket-man, and at the customs--they all enter.
Is anything wrong?”
”It has happened,” he answered.
She s.h.i.+vered a little and her face became grave.
”Poor fellow!” she murmured.
”He simply sat still and asked for it,” Bellamy declared, still speaking in a cautious undertone. ”He would not be warned. I could have saved him, if any one could, but he would not hear reason.”
”He was what you call pig-headed,” she remarked.
”He has paid the penalty,” Bellamy continued. ”Now listen to me, Louise. I got into that small coupe next to Von Behrling's, and I feel sure, from what I overheard, that they will go on to London, all three of them.”
”Who is there on the train?” she demanded.
”Baron Streuss, who is head of the Secret Police, Von Behrling and Adolf Kahn,” Bellamy answered. ”Then there are four or five Secret Service men of the rank and file, but they are all traveling separately. Von Behrling has the packet. The others form a sort of cordon around him.”
”But why,” she asked, ”does he go on to London? Why not return to Vienna?”
”For one thing,” Bellamy replied, with a grim smile, ”they are afraid of me. Then you must remember that this affair of Dorward will be talked about. They do not want to seem in any way implicated. To return from any one of these stations down the line would create suspicion.”
She nodded.
”Well?”
”I am going to leave the train at the next stop,” he continued. ”I find that I shall just catch the Northern Express to Berlin. From there I shall come on to London as quickly as I can. You know the address of my rooms?”
She nodded.
”15, Fitzroy Street.”
”When I get there, let me have a line waiting to tell me where I can see you. While I am on the train you will find Von Behrling almost inaccessible. Directly I have gone it will be different.
Play with him carefully. He should not be difficult. To tell you the truth, I am rather surprised that he has been trusted upon a mission like this. He was in disgrace with the Chancellor a short while ago, and I know that he was hurt at not being allowed to attend the conference. The others will watch him closely, but they cannot overhear everything that pa.s.ses between you two. Von Behrling is a poor man. You will know how to make him wish he were rich.”
Very slowly her eyebrows rose up. She looked at him doubtfully.
”It is a slender chance, David,” she remarked. ”Von Behrling is a little wild, I know, and he pretends to be very much in love with me, but I do not think that he would sell his country. Then, too, see how he will be watched. I do not suppose that they will leave us alone for a moment.”
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