Part 46 (1/2)

His host took the amba.s.sador by the arm and led him into a retired corner. Monsieur de Lamborne was a tall, slight man, somewhat cadaverous looking, with large features, hollow eyes, thin but carefully arranged gray hair, and a pointed gray beard. He wore a frilled s.h.i.+rt, and an eye-gla.s.s suspended by a broad black ribbon hung down upon his chest.

His face, as a rule, was imperturbable enough, but he had the air, just now, of a man greatly disturbed.

”We cannot be overheard here,” De Grost remarked. ”It must be an affair of a few words only, though.”

Monsieur de Lamborne wasted no time in preliminaries. ”This afternoon,”

he said, ”I received from my Government papers of immense importance, which I am to hand over to your Foreign Minister at eleven o'clock to-morrow morning.”

The Baron nodded.

”Well?”

De Lamborne's thin fingers trembled as they played nervously with the ribbon of his eye-gla.s.s.

”Listen,” he continued, dropping his voice a little. ”Bernadine has undertaken to send a copy of their contents to Berlin by to-morrow night's mail.”

”How do you know that?”

The amba.s.sador hesitated.

”We, too, have spies at work,” he remarked, grimly. ”Bernadine wrote and sent a messenger with the letter to Berlin. The man's body is drifting down the Channel, but the letter is in my pocket.”

”The letter from Bernadine?”

”Yes.”

”What does he say?”

”Simply that a verbatim copy of the doc.u.ment in question will be despatched to Berlin to-morrow evening, without fail.”

”There are no secrets between us,” De Grost declared, smoothly. ”What is the special importance of this doc.u.ment?”

De Lamborne shrugged his shoulders.

”Since you ask,” he said, ”I will tell you. You know of the slight coolness which there has been between our respective Governments. Our people have felt that the policy of your ministers in expending all their energies and resources in the building of a great fleet to the utter neglect of your army is a wholly one-sided arrangement, so far as we are concerned. In the event of a simultaneous attack by Germany upon France and England, you would be utterly powerless to render us any measure of a.s.sistance. If Germany should attack England alone, it is the wish of your Government that we should be pledged to occupy Alsace-Lorraine. You, on the other hand, could do nothing for us, if Germany's first move were made against France.”

The Baron was deeply interested, although the matter was no new one to him.

”Go on,” he directed. ”I am waiting for you to tell me the specific contents of this doc.u.ment.”

”The English Government has asked us two questions: first, how many complete army corps we consider she ought to place at our disposal in this eventuality; and, secondly, at what point should we expect them to be concentrated. The despatch which I received to-night contains the reply to these questions.”

”Which Bernadine has promised to forward to Berlin to-morrow night,” the Baron remarked, softly.

De Lamborne nodded.

”You perceive,” he said, ”the immense importance of the affair. The very existence of that doc.u.ment is almost a casus belli.”

”At what time did the despatch arrive,” the Baron asked, ”and what has been its history since?”