Part 43 (1/2)

”I am going to South Africa, Stafford,” he said, heavily. ”I hear that you are going, too; and I have come to see whether we cannot go out together.”

CHAPTER XXVII

KROOL

”A message from Mr. Byng to say that he may be a little late, but he says will you go on without him? He will come as soon as possible.”

The footman, having delivered himself, turned to withdraw, but Barry Whalen called him back, saying, ”Is Mr. Krool in the house?”

The footman replied in the affirmative. ”Did you wish to see him, sir?”

he asked.

”Not at present. A little later perhaps,” answered Barry, with a glance round the group, who eyed him curiously.

At a word the footman withdrew. As the door closed, little black, oily Sobieski dit Melville said with an attempt at a joke, ”Is 'Mr.' Krool to be called into consultation?”

”Don't be so d.a.m.ned funny, Melville,” answered Barry. ”I didn't ask the question for nothing.”

”These aren't days when anybody guesses much,” remarked Fleming. ”And I'd like to know from Mr. Kruger, who knows a lot of things, and doesn't gas, whether he means the mines to be safe.”

They all looked inquiringly at Wallstein, who in the storms which rocked them all kept his nerve and his countenance with a power almost benign. His large, limpid eye looked little like that belonging to an eagle of finance, as he had been called.

”It looked for a while as though they'd be left alone,” said Wallstein, leaning heavily on the table, ”but I'm not so sure now.” He glanced at Barry Whalen significantly, and the latter surveyed the group enigmatically.

”There's something evidently waiting to be said,” remarked Wolff, the silent Partner in more senses than one. ”What's the use of waiting?”

Two or three of those present looked at Ian Stafford, who, standing by the window, seemed oblivious of them all. Byng had requested him to be present, with a view to asking his advice concerning some international aspect of the situation, and especially in regard to Holland and Germany. The group had welcomed the suggestion eagerly, for on this side of the question they were not so well equipped as on others. But when it came to the discussion of inner local policy there seemed hesitation in speaking freely before him. Wallstein, however, gave a rea.s.suring nod and said, meaningly:

”We took up careful strategical positions, but our camp has been overlooked from a kopje higher than ours.”

”We have been the victims of treachery for years,” burst out Fleming, with anger. ”Nearly everything we've done here, nearly everything the Government has done here, has been known to Kruger--ever since the Raid.”

”I think it could have been stopped,” said the once Sobieski, with an ugly grimace, and an attempt at an accent which would suit his new name. ”Byng's to blame. We ought to have put down our feet from the start. We're Byng-ridden.”

”Keep a civil tongue, Israel,” snarled Barry Whalen. ”You know nothing about it, and that is the state in which you most s.h.i.+ne--in your natural state of ignorance, like the heathen in his blindness. But before Byng comes I'd better give you all some information I've got.”

”Isn't it for Byng to hear?” asked Fleming.

”Very much so; but it's for you all to decide what's to be done.

Perhaps Mr. Stafford can help us in the matter, as he has been with Byng very lately.” Wallstein looked inquiringly towards Stafford.

The group nodded appreciatively, and Stafford came forward to the table, but without seating himself. ”Certainly you may command me,” he said. ”What is the mystery?”

In short and abrupt sentences Barry Whalen, with an occasional interjection and explanation from Wallstein, told of the years of leakage in regard to their plans, of moves circ.u.mvented by information which could only have been got by treacherous means either in South Africa or in London.

”We didn't know for sure which it was,” said Barry, ”but the proof has come at last. One of Kruger's understrappers from Holland was successfully tapped, and we've got proof that the trouble was here in London, here in this house where we sit--Byng's home.”

There was a stark silence, in which more than one nodded significantly, and looked round furtively to see how the others took the news.