Part 15 (2/2)

We ate our dinner together, the monk being very gracious towards his mysterious hostess; and almost punctually at half-past nine the door of the drawing-room opened, and there entered a rather shabbily dressed man, whom I at once recognised as Count von Wedel, the inseparable companion of the Kaiser, and t.i.tular head of the German Secret Service. With him was no less a person than the German Foreign Minister, Kiderlen-Waechter.

Our visitors were the two Men Behind the Throne of Imperial Germany.

Standing with them was that man of kaleidoscopic make-up, the great Azef himself.

That meeting was indeed a dramatic one. Rasputin, taking bribes on every side from officials in Russia who desired advancement, and from the Germans to betray Russia into the hands of the Wilhelmstra.s.se, sat that evening in the elegant little room listening to the conversation, with all the craft and cunning of the Russian mujik. He made but few remarks, but sat with his hands upon his knees, his deep-set, fiery eyes glancing everywhere about him, his big bejewelled cross scintillating beneath the electric light of the pretty Paula's elegant, tastily furnished little room.

Von Wedel, though dressed so shabbily, was the chief spokesman.

Kiderlen-Waechter, who had so cleverly pulled the strings of Germany's diplomacy in the Near East, and had now been recalled to Berlin and placed at the helm of the Fatherland's double-dealing with the Powers, spoke little. He seemed to be learning much of the Kaiser's duplicity.

”The Emperor William, I can tell you frankly, Father, is displeased,” von Wedel said to Rasputin reprovingly. ”Only by an ace has the whole of our arrangements with your Empress, and with yourself as our agent, been suppressed from Downing Street. And that by steps taken by our friend here, Monsieur Azef. But we are not yet safe. I tell you quite frankly that though you are a good servant of ours, yet your habit of taking intoxicants is dangerous. You boast too much! If you are to succeed you must a.s.sume an att.i.tude of extreme humility combined with poverty. Be a second St. Francis of a.s.sisi,” added the Count, with humour. ”You can act any part. Imitate a real saint.”

”It surely is not through a fault of mine that any secret has leaked out,” the monk protested.

”But it is,” the Count declared severely. ”I am here to-night at the Emperor's orders to tell you from him that, though he appreciates all your efforts on his behalf, he disapproves of your drunkenness and your boastful tongue.”

”I am not boastful!” the monk declared. ”Have you brought me here to Berlin to reprimand me? If so, I will return at once.”

And he rose arrogantly from his chair, and crossed his hands over his breast piously in that att.i.tude he a.s.sumed when unusually angry.

Von Wedel saw that he was going too far.

”It is not a matter of reproof, but of precaution,” he said quickly.

”Happily the truth has been suppressed, though a certain agent of Downing Street--a man known by the nickname of 'Mac'--very nearly ascertained the whole facts. Fortunately for us all he did not. But his suspicions are aroused, together with those of Krivochein.”

”Cannot this man Mac--an Englishman, I suppose--be suppressed?” asked Rasputin. ”If he is in Russia I can crush him as a fly upon the window-pane.”

”Ah! but he is not in Russia,” replied the Count. ”He is a very elusive person, and one who tricks us every time. 'Mac the Spy,' as they call him at Whitehall, is the first secret agent in Europe--next, of course, to our dear Steinhauer.”

”I disagree,” interrupted the Foreign Secretary. ”The man Mac is marvellous. He was in Constantinople and in Bucharest recently, and he learned secrets of our Emba.s.sy and Legation which I believed to be sacred. He even got hold of our diplomatic telegraph code a week after it had been changed. No, the English Mac is the most astute secret agent in Europe, depend upon it!”

Paula Kereicha sat listening to the conversation, but without making any remark. I noticed that Azef seemed very uneasy at her presence, and presently sent her from the room to ask for a telephone call. The instant she had gone he exclaimed in a low voice:

”It is a pity to have spoken before Paula! She knows too much. One day, when it suits her, she may reveal something unpleasant concerning us.”

”But you made the appointment here, at her house!” Kiderlen-Waechter protested.

”Of course, because it is the safest meeting-place, but I did not know that matters were to be freely discussed before her.”

”Then you do not trust the woman?” remarked Rasputin. ”You are like myself, I never trust women,” and he grinned. ”Shall we drop our conversation when she returns?”

Azef reflected for a few moments.

”No,” he said. ”She knows most of the details of the affair. There is no reason why she should not know the rest. Besides, I may require her to a.s.sist me.”

In the discussion which ensued I gathered that Rasputin and Azef had resolved, with the connivance and at the instigation of the German Foreign Office, to a.s.sa.s.sinate a certain well-known British member of Parliament who had been in Russia and had learned, through the British secret agent Mac, the betrayal of Russia into the hands of the Wilhelmstra.s.se. It was believed that this Englishman--whom Rasputin had nicknamed ”Krivochein,” so that in correspondence his ident.i.ty should not be revealed--would place certain facts before the British Government to the detriment of the plans of the pro-German party in Russia.

Of the actual ident.i.ty of the unfortunate member of Parliament whom Azef and Rasputin had marked down as their victim I could not learn. No doubt Paula knew who ”Krivochein” was. And it was certain also that both von Wedel and the German Foreign Secretary were privy to the plot.

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