Part 34 (1/2)

Zimmern and h.e.l.lar were listening in consternation. ”How is it,” asked h.e.l.lar, ”that you speak German?”

By way of answer I addressed him in English and in French, while he and Zimmern glanced at each other as do men who see a miracle and strive to hold their reason while their senses contradict their logic.

I now sketched the story of my life and adventures with a fulness of convincing detail. One incident only I omitted and that was of the near discovery of my ident.i.ty by Armstadt's former mistress. Of that I did not speak for I felt that Marguerite, at least in the presence of the others, would not relish that part of the story. Nor did I wish to worry them with the fear that was still upon me that I had not seen the last of that affair.

After answering many questions and satisfying all doubts as to the truth of my story, I again turned the conversation to the practical problem of the escape from Berlin. ”You can now see,” I declared, ”that I deserve no credit for genius or courage. I am merely a prisoner in an enemy city where my life is in constant danger. If any one of you should speak the word, I would be promptly disposed of as a spy. But if you are sincere in your desire to send a message to my Government, I am here to take that message.”

”It almost makes one believe that there is a G.o.d,” cried h.e.l.lar, ”and that he has sent us a deliverer.”

”As for me,” spoke up Captain Grauble, ”I shall deliver your messenger into the hands of his friends, and trust that he can persuade them to deal graciously with me and my men. I should have made this break for liberty before had I not believed it would be fleeing from one death to another.”

”Then you will surely leave us,” said Zimmern. ”It is more than we have wished and prayed for, but,” he added, turning a compa.s.sionate glance toward Marguerite, ”it will be hard for her.”

”But she is going with us,” I affirmed. ”I will not leave her behind. As for you and Col h.e.l.lar, I shall see you again when Berlin is free. But the risks are great and the time may be long, and if Marguerite will go I will take her with me as a pledge that I shall not prove false in my mission for you, her people.”

I read Marguerite's answer in the joy of her eyes, as I heard Col.

h.e.l.lar say: ”That would be fine, if it were possible.”

But Zimmern shook his head. ”No,” he said, as if commanding. ”Marguerite must not go now even if it were possible. You may come back for her if you succeed in your mission, but we cannot lose her now; she must not go now,--” and his voice trembled with deep emotion. At his words of authority concerning the girl I loved I felt a resurge of the old suspicion and jealousy.

”I am sorry,” spoke up Captain Grauble, ”but your desire to take the Princess Marguerite with you is one that I fear cannot be realized. I would be perfectly willing for her to go if we could once get her aboard, but the approach of the submarine docks are very elaborately guarded. To smuggle a man aboard without a proper permit would be exceedingly difficult, but to get a woman to the vessel is quite impossible.”

”I suppose that it cannot be,” I said, for I saw the futility of arguing the matter further at the time, especially as Zimmern was opposed to it.

The night was now far spent and but four days remained in which to complete my preparations for departure. In this labour Zimmern and h.e.l.lar could be of no service and I therefore took my leave of them, lest I should not see them again. ”Within a year at most,” I said, ”we may meet again, for Berlin will be open to the world. Once the pa.s.sage is revealed and the protium traffic stopped, the food stores cannot last longer. When these facts are realized by His Majesty and the Advisory Council, let us hope they will see the futility of resisting. The knowledge that Germany possesses will increase the world's food supply far more than her population will add to the consumptive demands, hence if reason and sanity prevail on both sides there will be no excuse for war and suffering.”

~3~

And so I took my leave of the two men from whose n.o.ble souls I had achieved my aspirations to bring the century-old siege of Berlin to a sane and peaceful end without the needless waste of life that all the world outside had always believed would be an inevitable part of the capitulation of the armoured city.

I now walked with Marguerite through the deserted tree-lined avenues of the Royal Level.

”And why, dear,” I asked, ”have you refused to see me these five days past?”

”Oh, Karl,” she cried, ”you must forgive me, for nothing matters now--I have been crazed with jealousy. I was so hurt that I could see no one, for I could only fight it out alone.”

”And what do you mean?” I questioned. ”Jealous? And of whom could you be jealous, since there is no other woman in this unhappy city for whom I have ever cared?”

”Yes, I believe that. I haven't doubted that you loved me with a n.o.bler love than the others, but you told me there were no others, and I believed you. So it was hard, so very hard. The Doctor--I saw Dr.

Zimmern this morning and poured out my heart to him--insisted that I should accept the fact that until marriage all men were like that, and it could not be helped. But I never asked you, Karl, about other women; you yourself volunteered to tell me there were no others, and what you told me was not true. I must forgive you, for now I may lose you, but why does a man ever need to lie to a woman? I somehow feel that love means truth--”

”But,” I insisted, ”it was the truth. I bear no personal relation to any other woman.”

She drew back from me, breathing quickly, faith and doubt fighting a battle royal in her eyes. ”But the checks, Karl?” she stammered; ”those checks the girl on the Free Level cashes each month, and worse than that the check at the Jeweller's where you bought a necklace for twenty thousand marks?”

”Quite right, there are such checks, and I shall explain them. But before I begin, may I ask just how you came to know about those checks?

Not that I care; I am glad you do know; but the fact of your knowledge puzzles me, for I thought the privacy of a man's checking account was one of the unfair privileges that man has usurped for himself and not granted to women.”

”But I did not pry into the matter. I would never have thought of such a thing until he forced the facts upon me.”