Her Majesty's Minister Part 21

He was a smart, rather foppish man of military appearance, though somewhat foreign-looking; thin-faced, black-haired, with a small, black, pointed beard, and a pair of cold grey eyes, sharp and penetrating; an erect, rather imposing, figure, which if once seen impressed itself upon one. Outwardly he bore the stamp of good breeding and superiority, and he now called himself Rodolphe Wolf. It was strange--very strange.

I noted the house he had entered, then, turning, walked slowly along the Rue St. Paul, and so regained the upper end of the Rue de Rivoli; and as I strolled along my thoughts were indeed complex ones. Sight of that man recalled a chapter of my life which I had hoped was sealed for ever.

Of all men in the world he was the very last I should have dreamed of meeting. But as he had not detected me, for the present I possessed the advantage.

That thin, superior-looking man who had strolled so airily along the Quai, smart in his silk hat and pearl-grey gloves, and carrying his cane with such a jaunty air, was a man whose name had once been known throughout Europe--a man, indeed, of world-wide notoriety. In those days, however, he did not call himself Rodolphe Wolf. He had changed his name, it was true, but he could never succeed in changing his personality. Besides, the name he used had given me, who alone knew his secret, a clue to his ident.i.ty. When Sibyl had mentioned the name and described him as a chance acquaintance at the Baronne's, I felt convinced as to the truth. Yolande, too, seemed aware of his change of name, for so sudden had been my announcement that he was in Paris that she had been completely taken by surprise, and had made no attempt to declare herself ignorant of my meaning.

At the corner of the Caserne, in the Rue de Rivoli, I sprang into a fiacre, and told the man to drive to the Cafe de la Paix, where, seated upon one of the little wicker chairs in the warm sunset, I drank my mazagran and allowed my thoughts to run back to the time when this man had played so important a part in my life. All those strange circ.u.mstances came back to me as vividly as though they had happened but yesterday. He had once been my friend, but now he was my bitterest enemy.

Count Rodolphe d'Egloffstein-Wolfsburg, or as he now preferred to be called, Rodolphe Wolf, was in Paris. He had returned as though from the grave, and was apparently living in seclusion in an exceedingly unfashionable apartment over the fishing-tackle shop beside the Seine.

It was over two years since report had declared him to be dead, and I had congratulated myself upon an escape from what had seemed an inevitable disaster; yet that report was false. He was alive, and I had no doubt that he meant mischief.

Yet why did Yolande fear him? This fact puzzled me. They had been acquainted in the old days, it was true, but what cause she had to hate him I could not discern. Something had pa.s.sed between them of which I had remained in ignorance. Strange, too, that the Austrian Amba.s.sador should introduce him at the Baroness's reception! With what motive? I wondered. Surely he must know from the Diplomatic List that I was now in Paris, and that at any sign of hostility on his part I should expose him and explain the whole truth. He was playing a dangerous game, whatever it was; and I, too, felt myself to be in deadly peril.

I sat there trying to review the situation with calmness, but could see no solution of the problem. The truth was that, believing him to be dead, I had given no heed to that sealed chapter of my history, and now the ghastly truth had fallen upon me as a thunderbolt. Sibyl had met and liked him. She had in her ignorance declared d'Egloffstein-Wolfsburg to be a charming fellow. There was a touch of grim humour in the situation.

Fate seems sometimes to conspire against us. At such times it is no use kicking against the p.r.i.c.ks. The proper course is to accept misfortune with the largest amount of good-humour possible in the circ.u.mstances, and just to treat one's sorrows lightly until they pa.s.s. This is, I am aware, counsel excellent in kind, but extremely difficult to follow. At that moment I felt crushed beneath the weight of sudden misfortune. All my future seemed dark and hopeless, without a single ray of happiness.

The mystery surrounding Yolande's actions, the suspicion resting upon the Countess of having made a dastardly attempt upon her daughter's life, the manner in which knowledge of our secret despatch had been obtained and our diplomatic efforts thereby checkmated, and the reason of the sudden appearance in Paris of my most bitter enemy, formed a problem which, maddening in its complexity, appeared to admit of no solution.

Two men of my acquaintance came up and shook my hand in pa.s.sing, but what words I uttered I have no idea. My thoughts were, at that hour, when the Place de l'Opera was bathed in the crimson afterglow, far away from the busy whirl of central Paris, away in that peaceful forest glade where took place that incident by which I so narrowly escaped with my life. The whole scene came before me now. I remembered every detail of that night long ago.

Bah! My cigar tasted bitter, and I flung it across the pavement into the gutter. Would that I could have put from me all recollection as easily as I cast that remnant away! Alas! I knew that such a course was impossible. The ghost of the past had arisen to overshadow the future.

Next day at noon I sat with the Amba.s.sador in his private room discussing the political outlook. He had exchanged telegraphic despatches with Downing Street during the morning, and I knew from the deciphers which I had made that never in the course of my career as a diplomatist had the European situation been so critical.

Try how we would in Madrid, in Berlin, and in Vienna, we could obtain absolutely no confirmation of our suspicions that Ceuta had been sold by Spain to France. At the first rumours of the impending sale of this strategic point the machinery of our secret service in the various capitals had been set to work, and under the ubiquitous Kaye no stone had been left unturned in order to get at the real truth of this grave menace to England's power in the Mediterranean.

His Excellency, leaning back in his favourite cane chair, was grave and thoughtful, for again he had declared:

"All this is owing to those confounded spies! Here, in Paris, nothing can be conducted fairly and above-board. I really don't know, Ingram, what will be the outcome."

"Do you consider the situation so very critical, then?" I asked.

"Critical? I certainly do. It is more than critical. With this scurrilous Press against us, popular feeling so extremely antagonistic towards England, and the difficulties in the Transvaal, only a single spark is required to produce an explosion. You know what that would mean?"

"The long-predicted European war?"

He nodded, and his grey face grew greyer. I had never seen him more gloomy than at that moment. While we were talking, Harding rapped at the door and asked:

"Will Your Excellency see Mr. Grew?"

The Amba.s.sador turned quickly, exchanged a glance with me, and answered at once in the affirmative. For two persons His Excellency was at all times unengaged--for Kaye and for his trusted a.s.sistant, Samuel Grew.

A few moments later a rather under-sized, bald-headed, gentlemanly little man entered and seated himself, at the Chief's invitation. He was well-dressed, round-faced, with longish grey whiskers, and in his manner was the air of a thorough cosmopolitan, with just a trifle of the bon viveur.

"Well, Grew," inquired His Excellency, "anything fresh?"

"I have come to report to Your Excellency upon my visit to Ceuta."

"What!" the Amba.s.sador exclaimed in astonishment. "Have you actually been there and returned?"

"Certainly," the other answered, smiling. "I can move swiftly when necessary. I was in Barcelona when I received my telegraphic instructions, and set out at once."

"Well, tell us the result of your observations," urged Lord Barmouth, instantly interested.

"I went down to Algeciras, and crossed to the much-discussed penal settlement by boat. Before I could do so, I was compelled to get a permit from the commander of the Algeciras garrison, and only then was allowed to board the steamship, whose every nut, screw, and chain was screaming for a little oil, whose hands stretched themselves on deck in the sun and left the work to the captain and his engineer, while they sang songs and smoked cigarettes. There were very few pa.s.sengers, mostly women, who sang until the steamer cut across the Straits in the teeth of the wind; then they ceased to sing and commenced to pray. In little more than two hours we were just off Ceuta--a long, straggling Spanish town, the convict station high up on the eastern hill, with stone-work fortifications, that would hardly endure three hours'

attention from modern guns, down to the water's edge, and beyond, to the west, well-cultivated fields full of young wheat or barley. Arrived on sh.o.r.e, I was summoned to a shed, where a severe official in uniform examined my papers, recorded my age and other details in a book, returned the pa.s.sport, and told me that if I wished to leave Ceuta at any time I must go to the commandant and get his written permission to do so. Later on, the native who showed me the way to the Governor's house made an explanation that was less satisfactory than he intended.

`You see, senor,' he said, `we have a great many convicts here, and they are very like you. I mean to say,' he went on, feeling that he had not expressed himself happily, `that they are often dressed to look like gentlemen.' I then changed the conversation."

"And how about the fortifications?" His Excellency inquired.

"I have full plans and photographs of them," answered the member of the secret service. "The photographs are on films, as yet undeveloped, and I at once posted them to an address in Bale, so as to get rid of them from my possession. The plans, on tissue paper, I have here in my walking-stick," he added, smiling grimly and holding up to our view his rather battered ebony cane with a silver k.n.o.b.

"Aren't you afraid of anyone prying into that?" I asked.

"Not at all. The k.n.o.b is removable, as you see," and he unscrewed it, revealing a small cavity with a compa.s.s set in the top. "But no one ever suspects the ferrule. There is a hidden spring in it;" and, inverting the stick, he opened the ferrule, disclosing a small cavity in which reposed some tiny pieces of tissue closely resembling rolled cigarette papers.

It is against the British principles of openness and fairness to employ secret agents; but in these days, when spies abound everywhere and the whole of Europe is a vast network of political intrigue, we cannot afford to sit inactive and remain in contented ignorance.

"You will make a full report later, with photographs and plans, I presume?" His Excellency suggested.

"Yes. But knowing the importance of the matter I came straight to make a verbal report to Your Excellency. I arrived in Paris only an hour ago. At present Ceuta does not impress the eye of the person who knows something of England's fortified stations. Gibraltar stands on guard across the water, presenting nothing but a towering, bare rock, honeycombed with hidden batteries, to which all Ceuta lies exposed.

While Gibraltar is of solid rock, the vegetation round and in Ceuta hints at a more mixed material, and an immense amount of money would be required to make fortifications that would fulfil all modern requirements. The expenditure might work wonders, for the town has the sea on all sides, and could be completely isolated by flooding the strip of land that fronts the Bay. The present garrison consists of five thousand soldiers, including a regiment of Moors, who in point of physique are the best men in the place. Ceuta itself is rather a pretty town, so thoroughly Spanish that the few Moors and Arabs met in the streets are objects of interest. The houses are small, and often built round the cool patios dear to southern Spain. The balconies stretch so far across the streets that groups of girls sit all day, except in the hours of noon, chatting with their neighbours across the way."

"And what does your visit lead you to conclude?" inquired His Excellency, all attention to this statement of the well-trained secret agent.

"I am of opinion that the present condition of Ceuta need inspire no uneasiness. Our latest and heaviest guns completely command the town; and if, in an hour of universal commotion, the unexpected happened, and Spain gave up her possession, very long and expensive work would be required to render the position tenable."

"And have you made arrangements for further information?" asked Lord Barmouth.

"Yes. We shall be at once informed of any fortification of Ceuta conducted at a cost out of proportion to Spanish resources--say at the expense and on behalf of a Power that would hope to acquire it suddenly."

"Good," observed the Chief in a tone of approval. "I congratulate you, Mr. Grew, upon your smartness in this affair. But you have not told me whether you discovered any French agents there?"

"None. I went in the guise of a Frenchman, with a French pa.s.sport, and searched for any compatriots, but found none whom I could suspect."

"Well," responded the Amba.s.sador, rising, as a sign that the audience was at an end, "it behoves us to be constantly on the alert in face of the network of French intrigue that threatens England in the land of the Moors, and consequently at one end of the Mediterranean."

Then the keen, bald-headed, little man, highly pleased by the Chief's word of commendation, bowed and withdrew, taking with him the precious walking-stick in which were concealed the plans of the Spanish fortifications.

His Excellency sighed when the man had gone, and after a pause exclaimed seriously:

"I can't help regarding the affair, Ingram, as something more than a political ballon d'essai. The silence of our friends both in the Boulevard de Courcelles and the Rue de Lille is very ominous."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

SMART PARIS.