Part 3 (1/2)

”Then you must grant us a slight advantage,” rejoined Edestone evenly; ”because we believe we do understand you Englishmen. If there had been the same clear understanding on your side in the present instance it would have been more to your interest, I am satisfied; for then instead of merely disturbing you I should have aroused you.”

”It is not a question of arousing me as you call it. You are dealing with the Government of the Empire, and, as you know, England moves slowly. The suggestion that I invite His Majesty to see a lot of moving pictures of an impossible machine, if you will pardon me, is preposterous. If you really wish to sell something to the War Department, although I understand you to state that you do not, nothing is simpler. s.h.i.+p one of your machines to England, give a demonstration, and whereas I cannot speak with authority, I am confident that England will pay all that any other Government will pay. As to our friends, the enemy, our s.h.i.+ps will attend to it that nothing goes to them that can be used against us.” His jaws snapped, and his cold greenish-grey eyes flashed, as he gave another curt bow of dismissal.

Edestone had no alternative but to leave; but as he turned to rejoin Colonel Wyatt, who had stood stiffly at attention throughout the entire interview, he could not resist one parting shot.

”Do not forget, Lord Rockstone,” he said, ”that England six months ago spoke lightly of submarines.”

The War Minister pretended not to hear; but no sooner had the door closed upon his offensive visitor than he caught up the telephone. ”Get me the Admiralty, and present my compliments to Mr. Underhill,” he directed sharply. ”Tell him I would like to speak to him at once.”

He turned back to a tray of letters left upon his desk to sign, but halted, his pen held arrested in air.

”Suppose,” he muttered, ”the fellow should actually have--? But, pshaw! It's simply a mammoth Yankee bluff. That Foreign Department at Was.h.i.+ngton is just silly enough to believe that it can frighten us with its manufactured photographs. They are so anxious over there to stop the war, that they would resort to any expedient--anything but fight.”

The telephone tinkled.

”Ah! Are you there Underhill? Yes, this is Rockstone. I called you up to warn you against a madman who is now on his way to see you. You can't well refuse to give him an audience, for he has such strong letters from the American Government that one might imagine he was a special envoy sent to offer armed intervention and to end the war. But in my opinion he is merely a crank or an impostor, who has succeeded in obtaining the support and endors.e.m.e.nt of their State Department.

”What is that? Oh yes; he's an American. His name? How should I remember! I wasn't interested either in him, or what he had to say.

He pretends to have discovered some new agency or force, don't you know, and tries to prove by a lot of double-exposed photographs that he has broken down the fundamental laws of physics, neutralizing the force of gravity, or annihilating s.p.a.ce by the polarization of light, or some such rot.

”Do not kick him out. He has letters not only from his Government, but from some of its most prominent men whom it would be unwise to offend at this time. Just listen to his twaddle about universal peace and that sort of thing, and then pa.s.s him on to Graves with a quiet warning such as I have given you.”

Meanwhile Edestone, having taken leave of Colonel Wyatt, was making his way out of the building, when he found himself accosted in the dimly lighted corridor by a man in civilian clothes whom he recognized as a New York acquaintance of several years' standing.

”Well, look who's here!” he greeted Edestone l.u.s.tily as he extended his hand. ”What brings you into the very den of the lion? Is it that, like myself, you are helping dear old England get arms and ammunition with which to lick the barbarians on the Rhine?”

Glancing around cautiously he lowered his voice. ”Make her pay well for them, my boy; she would not hesitate to turn them on us, if we got in her way.”

Edestone laughingly disclaimed any interest in army contracts, but at the same time avoided divulging the actual mission upon which he was engaged.

There was something in his companion's manner that put him rather on his guard; he remembered smoking after dinner not more than three or four months before in the house of one of the most prominent German bankers in New York, and listening to this man, who had expressed himself in a way that might have suggested somewhat pro-German sympathies. Edestone had at the time attributed this to a consideration for their host and to the fact that the German Amba.s.sador was present; but he recalled that, although the speaker was most violent in his protestations of neutrality, someone had suggested at the time that he was of a German family, his father having been born in Hesse-Darmstadt. He was a man of wealth, with establishments in New York and Newport, at both of which places Edestone had been entertained. His loud and hearty manner stamped him as a typical American, but his large frame, handsome face, and military bearing showed his Teutonic origin.

”You surprise me Rebener.” Edestone's eyes twinkled slightly at these recollections. ”I should have supposed, if you had anything of the kind to sell, that it would be to your friend, Count Bernstoff.

However,” he laid his hand on the other's arm, ”it's an agreeable surprise to run across a fellow-countryman, no matter what the cause.

Are you going my way?”

”No,” Rebener told him, he had an appointment on hand with one of the bureau chiefs in the Ordnance Department.

”Well then suppose you dine with me tonight,” suggested Edestone. ”I am stopping at Claridge's and shall be awfully glad if you can come. I am entirely alone in London, you see; my cronies, I find, are all dead or at the front.”

”Delighted, my boy. But listen! Don't have any of your English swells. Let's make this a quiet little American dinner just to ourselves, and forget for once this ghastly war.”

”At eight o'clock, then,” Edestone nodded.

”And a strict neutrality dinner, remember. That is the only safe kind for us Americans to eat in London.”

”All right, Rebener, as neutral as you please. _A bientot_.” And with a wave of the hand he pa.s.sed on down the corridor and out of the building. His appointment with Underhill, Chief of the Admiralty, was not until 11:30, so he put in the time by sauntering rather slowly along the Thames Embankment.