Part 25 (1/2)
”I have made no contract with him.”
”You have opened negotiations; he is ready to come to terms with you. You have only to name your price.”
”I have no price,” Mr. Sabin said quietly, ”that he could pay.”
”What Knigenstein can give,” Felix said, ”he can give double. The Secret Service funds of Russia are the largest in the world; you can have practically a blank cheque upon them.”
”I repeat,” Mr. Sabin said, ”I have no price that Prince Lobenski could pay. You talk as though I were a blackmailer, or a common thief. You have always misunderstood me. Come! I will remember that the cards are upon the table; I will be wholly frank with you. It is Knigenstein with whom I mean to treat, and not your chief. He has agreed to my terms--Russia never could.”
Felix was silent for a moment.
”You are holding,” he said, ”your trump card in your hand. Whatever in this world Germany could give you, Russia could improve upon.”
”She could do so,” Mr. Sabin said, ”only at the expense of her honour. Come! here is that trump card. I will throw it upon the table; now you see that my hands are empty. My price is the invasion of France, and the restoration of the Monarchy.”
Felix looked at him as a man looks upon a lunatic.
”You are playing with me,” he cried.
”I was never more in earnest in my life,” Mr. Sabin said.
”Do you mean to tell me that you--in cold blood--are working for so visionary, so impossible an end?”
”It is neither visionary,” Mr. Sabin said, ”nor impossible. I do not believe that any man, save myself, properly appreciates the strength of the Royalist party in France. Every day, every minute brings it fresh adherents. It is as certain that some day a king will reign once more at Versailles, as that the sun will set before many hours are past. The French people are too bourgeois at heart to love a republic. The desire for its abolition is growing up in their hearts day by day. You understand me now when I say that I cannot treat with your country? The honour of Russia is bound up with her friends.h.i.+p to France. Germany, on the other hand, has ready her battle cry. She and France have been quivering on the verge of war for many a year. My whole hand is upon the table now, Felix. Look at the cards, and tell me whether we can treat!”
Felix was silent. He looked at his opponent with unwilling admiration; the man after all, then, was great. For the moment he could think of nothing whatever to say.
”Now, listen to me,” Mr. Sabin continued earnestly. ”I made a great mistake when I ever mentioned the matter to Prince Lobenski. I cannot treat with him, but on the other hand, I do not want to be hampered by his importunities for the next few days. You have done your duty, and you have done it well. It is not your fault that you cannot succeed. Leave the train at the next station--disappear for a week, and I will give you a fortune. You are young--the world is before you. You can seek distinction in whatever way you will. I have a cheque-book in my pocket, and a fountain pen. I will give you an order on the Credit Lyonnaise for 20,000.”
Felix laughed softly; his face was full of admiration. He looked at his watch, and began to gather together his belongings.
”Write out the cheque,” he said; ”I agree. We shall be at the junction in about ten minutes.”
CHAPTER x.x.xVI.
THE MODERN RICHELIEU.
”So I have found you at last!”
Mr. Sabin looked up with a distinct start from the table where he sat writing. When he saw who his visitor was, he set down his pen and rose to receive her at once. He permitted himself to indulge in a little gesture of relief; her noiseless entrance had filled him with a sudden fear.
”My dear Helene,” he said, placing a chair for her, ”if I had had the least idea that you wished to see me, I would have let you know my whereabouts. I am sorry that you should have had any difficulty; you should have written.”
She shrugged her shoulders slightly.
”What does it all mean?” she asked. ”Why are you masquerading in cheap lodgings, and why do they say at Kensington that you have gone abroad? Have things gone wrong?”
He turned and faced her directly. She saw then that pale and haggard though he was, his was not the countenance of a man tasting the bitterness of failure.
”Very much the contrary,” he said; ”we are on the brink of success. All that remains to be done is the fitting together of my American work with the last of these papers. It will take me about another twenty-four hours.”
She handed across to him a morning newspaper, which she had been carrying in her m.u.f.f. A certain paragraph was marked.
”We regret to state that Admiral, the Earl of Deringham, was seized yesterday morning with a fit, whilst alone in his study. Dr. Bond, of Harley Street, was summoned at once to a consultation, but we understand that the case is a critical one, and the gravest fears are entertained. Lord Deringham was the greatest living authority upon the subject of our fleet and coast defences, and we are informed that at the time of his seizure he was completing a very important work in connection with this subject.”
Mr. Sabin read the paragraph slowly, and then handed the paper back to Helene.
”Deringham was a very distinguished man,” he remarked, ”but he was stark mad, and has been for years. They have been able to keep it quiet, only because he was harmless.”
”You remember what I told you about these people,” Helene said sternly; ”I told you distinctly that I would not have them harmed in any way. You were at Deringham Hall on the morning of his seizure. You went straight there from the Lodge.”
”That is quite true,” he admitted; ”but I had nothing to do with his illness.”
”I wish I could feel quite certain of that,” Helene answered. ”You are a very determined man, and you went there to get papers from him by any means. You proved that you were altogether reckless as to how you got them, by your treatment of Lord Wolfenden. You succeeded! No one living knows by what means!”
He interrupted her with an impatient gesture.
”There is nothing in this worth discussion,” he declared. ”Lord Deringham is nothing to you--you never even saw him in your life, and if you really have any misgivings about it, I can a.s.sure you that I got what I wanted from him without violence. It is not a matter for you to concern yourself in, nor is it a matter worth considering at all, especially at such a time as the present.”
She sat quite still, her head resting upon her gloved hand. He did not altogether like her appearance.
”I want you to understand,” he continued slowly, ”that success, absolute success is ours. I have the personal pledge of the German Emperor, signed by his own hand. To-morrow at noon the compact is concluded. In a few weeks, at the most, the thunderbolt will have fallen. These arrogant Islanders will be facing a great invasion, whose success is already made absolutely sure. And then----”
He paused: his face kindled with a pa.s.sionate enthusiasm, his eyes were lit with fire. There was something great in the man's rapt expression.
”Then, the only true, the only sweet battle-cry in the French tongue, will ring through the woods of Brittany, ay, even to the walls of Paris. Vive la France! Vive la Monarchie!”
”France has suffered so much,” she murmured; ”do not you who love her so tremble when you think of her rivers running once more red with blood?”
”If there be war at all,” he answered, ”it will be brief. Year by year the loyalists have gained power and influence. I have notes here from secret agents in every town, almost in every village; the great heart of Paris is with us. Henri will only have to show himself, and the voice of the people will shout him king! And you----”
”For me,” she interrupted, ”nothing! I withdraw! I will not marry Henri, he must stand his chance alone! His is the elder branch--he is the direct heir to the throne!”
Mr. Sabin drew in a long breath between his teeth. He was nerving himself for a great effort. This fear had been the one small, black cloud in the sky of his happiness.
”Helene,” he said, ”if I believed that you meant--that you could possibly mean--what you have this moment said, I would tear my compact in two, throw this box amongst the flames, and make my bow to my life's work. But you do not mean it. You will change your mind.”
”But indeed I shall not!”
”Of necessity you must; the alliance between you and Henri is absolutely compulsory. You unite the two great branches of our royal family. The sound of your name, coupled with his, will recall to the ears of France all that was most glorious in her splendid history. And apart from that, Henri needs such a woman as you for his queen. He has many excellent qualities, but he is weak, a trifle too easy, a trifle thoughtless.”
”He is a dissipated roue,” she said in a low tone, with curling lip.