Part 5 (2/2)
They were crossing a crowded thoroughfare, and Felix did not reply until they were safe on the opposite pavement. Then he took Wolfenden's arm, and, leaning over, almost whispered in his ear-- ”You speak,” he said, ”what nine-tenths of your countrymen believe. Yet you are wrong. Wherever there are international questions which bring great powers such as yours into antagonism, or the reverse, with other great countries, the soil is laid ready for intrigue, and the seed is never long wanted. Yes; I know that, to all appearance, you are the smuggest and most respectable nation ever evolved in this world's history. Yet if you tell me that your's is a nation free from intrigue, I correct you; you are wrong, you do not know--that is all! That very man, whose life last night you so inopportunely saved, is at this moment deeply involved in an intrigue against your country.”
”Mr. Sabin!” Wolfenden exclaimed.
”Yes, Mr. Sabin! Mind, I know this by chance only. I am not concerned one way or the other. My quarrel with him is a private one. I am robbed for the present of my vengeance by a power to which I am forced to yield implicit obedience. So, for the present, I have forgotten that he is my enemy. He is safe from me, yet if last night I had struck home, I should have ridded your country of a great and menacing danger. Perhaps--who can tell--he is a man who succeeds--I might even have saved England from conquest and ruin.”
They had reached the top of Piccadilly, and downward towards the Park flowed the great afternoon stream of foot-people and carriages. Wolfenden, on whom his companion's words, charged as they were with an almost pa.s.sionate earnestness, could scarcely fail to leave some impression, was silent for a moment.
”Do you really believe,” he said, ”that ours is a country which could possibly stand in any such danger? We are outside all Continental alliances! We are pledged to support neither the dual or the triple alliance. How could we possibly become embroiled?”
”I will tell you one thing which you may not readily believe,” Felix said. ”There is no country in the world so hated by all the great powers as England.”
Wolfenden shrugged his shoulders.
”Russia,” he remarked, ”is perhaps jealous of our hold on Asia, but----”
”Russia,” Felix interrupted, ”of all the countries in the world, except perhaps Italy, is the most friendly disposed towards you.”
Wolfenden laughed.
”Come,” he said, ”you forget Germany.”
”Germany!” Felix exclaimed scornfully. ”Believe it or not as you choose, but Germany detests you. I will tell you a thing which you can think of when you are an old man, and there are great changes and events for you to look back upon. A war between Germany and England is only a matter of time--of a few short years, perhaps even months. In the Cabinet at Berlin a war with you to-day would be more popular than a war with France.”
”You take my breath away,” Wolfenden exclaimed, laughing.
Felix was very much in earnest.
”In the little world of diplomacy,” he said, ”in the innermost councils these things are known. The outside public knows nothing of the awful responsibilities of those who govern. Two, at least, of your ministers have realised the position. You read this morning in the papers of more wars.h.i.+ps and strengthened fortifications--already there have been whispers of the conscription. It is not against Russia or against France that you are slowly arming yourselves, it is against Germany!”
”Germany would be mad to fight us,” Wolfenden declared.
”Under certain conditions,” Felix said slowly. ”Don't be angry--Germany must beat you.”
Wolfenden, looking across the street, saw Harcutt on the steps of his club, and beckoned to him.
”There is Harcutt,” he exclaimed, pointing him out to Felix. ”He is a journalist, you know, and in search of a sensation. Let us hear what he has to say about these things.”
But Felix unlinked his arm from Wolfenden's hastily.
”You must excuse me,” he said. ”Harcutt would recognise me, and I do not wish to be pointed out everywhere as a would-be a.s.sa.s.sin. Remember what I have said, and avoid Sabin and his parasites as you would the devil.”
Felix hurried away. Wolfenden remained for a moment standing in the middle of the pavement looking blankly along Piccadilly. Harcutt crossed over to him.
”You look,” he remarked to Wolfenden, ”like a man who needs a drink.”
Wolfenden turned with him into the club.
”I believe that I do,” he said. ”I have had rather an eventful hour.”
CHAPTER X.
THE SECRETARY.
Mr. Sabin, who had parted with Wolfenden with evident relief, leaned back in the cab and looked at his watch.
”That young man,” he remarked, ”has wasted ten minutes of my time. He will probably have to pay for it some day.”
”By the bye,” the girl asked, ”who is he?”
”His name is Wolfenden--Lord Wolfenden.”
”So I gathered; and who is Lord Wolfenden?”
”The only son of Admiral the Earl of Deringham. I don't know anything more than that about him myself.”
”Admiral Deringham,” the girl repeated, thoughtfully; ”the name sounds familiar.”
Mr. Sabin nodded.
”Very likely,” he said. ”He was in command of the Channel Squadron at the time of the Magnificent disaster. He was barely half a mile away and saw the whole thing. He came in, too, rightly or wrongly, for a share of the blame.”
”Didn't he go mad, or something?” the girl asked.
”He had a fit,” Mr. Sabin said calmly, ”and left the service almost directly afterwards. He is living in strict seclusion in Norfolk, I believe. I should not like to say that he is mad. As a matter of fact, I do not believe that he is.”
She looked at him curiously. There was a note of reserve in his tone.
”You are interested in him, are you not?” she asked.
”In a measure,” he admitted. ”He is supposed, mad or not, to be the greatest living authority on the coast defences of England and the state of her battles.h.i.+ps. They shelved him at the Admiralty, but he wrote some vigorous letters to the papers and there are people pretty high up who believe in him. Others, of course, think that he is a crank.”
”But why,” she asked, languidly, ”are you interested in such matters?”
Mr. Sabin knocked the ash off the cigarette he was smoking and was silent for a moment.
”One gets interested nowadays in--a great many things which scarcely seem to concern us,” he remarked deliberately. ”You, for instance, seem interested in this man's son. He cannot possibly be of any account to us.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
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