Part 32 (1/2)
X---- that should this Government attempt any such trickery as he not unreasonably suspects, then his conditions will be met. My men shall fight, and their cause will be just.”
”So far,” Norgate admitted, ”this is very satisfactory.”
”To pa.s.s on,” Mr. Bullen continued, ”let me at once confess that I find something sinister, Mr. Norgate, in this mysterious visit of yours, in the hidden ident.i.ty of Mr. X----. I suspect some underlying motive which prompts the offering of this million pounds. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that I can see beneath it all the hand of a foreign enemy of England.”
”Supposing you were right, Mr. Bullen,” Norgate said, ”what is England but a foreign enemy of Ireland?”
A light flashed for a moment in Mr. Bullen's eyes. His lip curled inwards.
”Young man,” he demanded, ”are you an Englishman?”
”I am,” Norgate admitted.
”You speak poorly, then. To proceed to the matter in point, my word is pledged to fight. I will plunge the country I love into civil war to gain her rights, as greater patriots than I have done before. But the thing which I will not do is to be made the cat's-paw, or to suffer Ireland to be made the cat's-paw, of Germany. If war should come before the settlement of my business, this is the position I should take. I would cross to Dublin, and I would tell every Nationalist Volunteer to shoulder his rifle and to fight for the British Empire, and I would go on to Belfast--I, David Bullen--to Belfast, where I think that I am the most hated man alive, and I would stand side by side with the leader of those men of Ulster, and I would beg them to fight side by side with my Nationalists. And when the war was over, if my rights were not granted, if Ireland were not set free, then I would bid my men take breathing time and use all their skill, all the experience they had gained, and turn and fight for their own freedom against the men with whom they had struggled in the same ranks. Is that million pounds to be mine, Mr. Norgate?”
Norgate shook his head.
”Nor any part of it, sir,” he answered.
”I presume,” Mr. Bullen remarked, as he rose, ”that I shall never have the pleasure of meeting Mr. X----?”
”I most sincerely hope,” Norgate declared fervently, ”that you never will. Good-day, Mr. Bullen!”
He held out his hand. Mr. Bullen hesitated.
”Sir,” he said, ”I am glad to shake hands with an Irishman. I am willing to shake hands with an honest Englishman. Just where you come in, I don't know, so good evening. You will find my secretary outside. He will show you how to get away.”
For a moment Norgate faltered. A hot rejoinder trembled upon his lips.
Then he remembered himself and turned on his heel. It was his first lesson in discipline. He left the room without protest.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Mr. Hebblethwaite turned into Pall Mall, his hands behind his back, his expression a little less indicative of bland good humour than usual. He had forgotten to light his customary cigarette after the exigencies of a Cabinet Council. He had even forgotten to linger for a few minutes upon the doorstep in case any photographer should be hanging around to take a snapshot of a famous visitor leaving an historic scene, and quite unconsciously he ignored the salutation of several friends. It was only by the merest chance that he happened to glance up at the corner of the street and recognised Norgate across the way. He paused at once and beckoned to him.
”Well, young fellow,” he exclaimed, as they shook hands, ”how's the German spy business going?”
”Pretty well, thanks,” Norgate answered coolly. ”I am in it twice over now. I'm marrying an Austrian lady shortly, very high up indeed in the Diplomatic Secret Service of her country. Between us you may take it that we could read, if we chose, the secrets of the Cabinet Council from which you have just come.”
”Any fresh warnings, eh?”
Norgate turned and walked by his friend's side.
”It is no use warning you,” he declared. ”You've a hide as thick as a rhinoceros. Your complacency is bomb-proof. You won't believe anything until it's too late.”
”Confoundedly disagreeable companion you make, Norgate,” the Cabinet Minister remarked irritably. ”You know quite as well as I do that the German scare is all bunk.u.m, and you only hammer it in either to amuse yourself or because you are of a sensational turn of mind. All the same--”
”All the same, what?” Norgate interrupted.
Hebblethwaite took his young friend's arm and led him into his club.