Part 11 (2/2)

”From Was.h.i.+ngton at this time of the night,” he exclaimed thickly. ”Come in here, Smith.”

He raised the curtains leading into a small anteroom, and turned up the electric light. His clerk laid the message down on the table before him.

”Here is the despatch, Mr. Mace,” he said, ”and here is the translation.”

”English Amba.s.sador demands immediate explanation of arrest of Duke Souspennier at Waldorf to-night. Reply immediately what charge and evidence. Souspennier naturalised Englishman.”

Mr. Mace sprang to his feet with an oath. He threw aside the curtain which s.h.i.+elded the room from the larger apartment.

”Horser, come here, you d.a.m.ned fool!”

Horser, with a stream of magnificent invectives, obeyed the summons. His host pointed to the message.

”Read that!”

Mr. Horser read and his face grew even more repulsive. A dull purple flush suffused his cheeks, his eyes were bloodshot, and the veins on his forehead stood out like cords. He leaned for several moments against the table and steadily cursed Mr. Sabin, the government at Was.h.i.+ngton, and something under his breath which he did not dare to name openly.

”Oh, shut up!” his host said at last. ”How the devil are we going to get out of this?”

Mr. Horser left the room and returned with a tumbler full of brandy and a very little water.

”Take a drink yourself,” he said. ”It'll steady you.”

”Oh, I'm steady enough,” Mr. Mace replied impatiently. ”I want to know how you're going to get us out of this. What was the charge, anyhow?”

”Pa.s.sing forged bills,” Horser answered. ”Parsons fixed it up.”

Mr. Mace turned a shade paler.

”Where the devil's the sense in a charge like that?” he answered fiercely. ”The man's a millionaire. He'll turn the tables on us nicely.”

”We've got to keep him till after the Campania sails, anyhow,” Horser said doggedly.

”We're not going to keep him ten minutes,” Mace replied. ”I'm going to sign the order for his release.”

Horser's speech was thick with drunken fury. ”By --- I'll see that you don't!” he exclaimed.

Mace turned upon him angrily.

”You selfish fool!” he muttered. ”You're not in the thing, anyhow. If you think I'm going to risk my position for the sake of one little job you're wrong. I shall go down myself and release him, with an apology.”

”He'll have his revenge all the same,” Horser answered. ”It's too late now to funk the thing. They can't budge you. We'll see to that. We hold New York in our hands. Be a man, Mace, and run a little risk. It's fifty thousand.”

Mace looked up at him curiously.

”What do you get out of it, Horser?”

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