Mysterious Mr. Sabin Part 31

"I am Captain Ackinson, Cunard ss. Calipha," he answered. "What do you want with me?"

"I am Captain Von Dronestein, in command of the Kaiser Wilhelm, German Navy," was the reply. "I want a word or two with you in private, Captain Ackinson. Can I come on board?"

Captain Ackinson's reply was not gushing. He gave the necessary orders, however, and in a few moments Captain Von Dronestein, and a thin, dark man in the dress of a civilian, clambered to the deck. They looked at Mr. Sabin, standing by the captain's side, and exchanged glances of intelligence.

"If you will kindly permit us, Captain," the newcomer said, "we should like to speak with you in private. The matter is one of great importance."

Mr. Sabin discreetly retired. The captain turned on his heel and led the way to his cabin. He pointed briefly to the lounge against the wall and remained himself standing.

"Now, gentlemen, if you please," he said briskly, "to business. You have stopped a mail steamer in mid ocean by force, so I presume you have something of importance to say. Please say it and let me go on. I am behind time now."

The German held up his hands. "We have stopped you," he said, "it is true, but not by force. No! No!"

"I don't know what else you call it when you show me a bounding thirty guns and put a shot across my bows."

"It was a blank charge," the German began, but Captain Ackinson interrupted him.

"It was nothing of the sort!" he declared bluntly. "I was on deck and I saw the charge strike the water."

"It was then contrary to my orders," Captain Dronestein declared, "and in any case it was not intended for intimidation."

"Never mind what it was intended for. I have my own opinion about that," Captain Ackinson remarked impatiently. "Proceed if you please!"

"In the first place permit me to introduce the Baron Von Graisheim, who is attached to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at Berlin."

Captain Ackinson's acknowledgment of the introduction was barely civil. The German continued-- "I am afraid you will not consider my errand here a particularly pleasant one, Herr Captain. I have a warrant here for the arrest of one of your pa.s.sengers, whom I have to ask you to hand over to me."

"A what!" Captain Ackinson exclaimed, with a spot of deep colour stealing through the tan of his cheeks.

"A warrant," Dronestein continued, drawing an imposing looking doc.u.ment from his breast pocket. "If you will examine it you will perceive that it is in perfect order. It bears, in fact," he continued, pointing with reverential forefinger to a signature near the bottom of the doc.u.ment, "the seal of his most august Majesty, the Emperor of Germany."

Captain Ackinson glanced at the doc.u.ment with imperturbable face.

"What is the name of the gentleman to whom all this refers?" he inquired.

"The Duc de Souspennier!"

"The name," Captain Ackinson remarked, "is not upon my pa.s.sengers' list."

"He is travelling under the alias of 'Mr. Sabin,'" Baron Von Graisheim interjected.

"And do you expect me," Captain Ackinson remarked, "to hand over the person in question to you on the authority of that doc.u.ment?"

"Certainly!" the two men exclaimed with one voice.

"Then I am very sorry indeed," Captain Ackinson declared, "that you should have had the temerity to stop my ship, and detain me here on such a fool's errand. We are on the high seas and under the English flag. The doc.u.ment you have just shown me impeaching the Duc de Souspennier for 'lese majestie' and high treason, and all the rest of it, is not worth the paper it is written on here, nor, I should think in America. I must ask you to leave my ship at once, gentlemen, and I can promise you that my employers, the Cunard ss. Company, will bring a claim against your Government for this unwarrantable detention."

"You must, if you please, be reasonable," Captain Dronestein said. "We have force behind us, and we are determined to rescue this man at all costs."

Captain Ackinson laughed scornfully.

"I shall be interested to see what measures of force you will employ," he remarked. "You may have a tidy bill to pay as it is, for that shot you put across my bows. If you try another it may cost you the Kaiser Wilhelm and the whole of the German Navy. Now, if you please, I've no more time to waste."

Captain Ackinson moved towards the door. Dronestein laid his hand upon his arm.

"Captain Ackinson," he said, "do not be rash. If I have seemed too peremptory in this matter, remember that Germany as my fatherland is as dear to me as England to you, and this man whose arrest I am commissioned to effect has earned for himself the deep enmity of all patriots. Listen to me, I beg. You run not one shadow of risk in delivering this man up to my custody. He has no country with whom you might become embroiled. He is a French Royalist, who has cast himself adrift altogether from his country, and is indeed her enemy. Apart from that, his detention, trial and sentence, would be before a secret court. He would simply disappear. As for you, you need not fear but that your services will be amply recognised. Make your claims now for this detention of your steamer; fix it if you will at five or even ten thousand pounds, and I will satisfy it on the spot by a draft on the Imperial Exchequer. The man can be nothing to you. Make a great country your debtor. You will never regret it."

Captain Ackinson shook his arm free from the other's grasp, and strode out on to the deck.

"Kaiser Wilhelm boat alongside," he shouted, blowing his whistle. "Smith, have these gentlemen lowered at once, and pa.s.s the word to the engineer's room, full speed ahead."

He turned to the two men, who had followed him out.

"You had better get off my ship before I lose my temper," he said bluntly. "But rest a.s.sured that I shall report this attempt at intimidation and bribery to my employers, and they will without doubt lay the matter before the Government."

"But Captain Ackinson----"

"Not another word, sir."

"My dear----"

Captain Ackinson turned his back upon the two men, and with a stiff, military salute turned towards the bridge. Already the machinery was commencing to throb. Mr. Watson, who was hovering near, came up and helped them to descend. A few apparently casual remarks pa.s.sed between the three men. From a little lower down Mr. Sabin and Mrs. Watson leaned over the rail and watched the visitors lowered into their boat.

"That was rather a foolish attempt," he remarked lightly; "nevertheless they seem disappointed."

She looked after them pensively.

"I wish I knew what they said to--my husband," she murmured.

"Orders for my a.s.sa.s.sination, very likely," he remarked lightly. "Did you see your husband's face when he pa.s.sed us?"

She nodded, and looked behind. Mr. Watson had entered the smoke-room. She drew a little nearer to Mr. Sabin and dropped her voice almost to a whisper.

"What you have said in jest is most likely the truth. Be very careful!"

CHAPTER XLV.

MR. SABIN IN DANGER.

Mr. Sabin found the captain by no means inclined to talk about the visit which they had just received. He was still hurt and ruffled at the propositions which had been made to him, and annoyed at the various delays which seemed conspiring to prevent him from making a decent pa.s.sage.

"I have been most confoundedly insulted by those d---- Germans," he said to Mr. Sabin, meeting him a little later in the gangway. "I don't know exactly what your position may be, but you will have to be on your guard. They have gone on to New York, and I suppose they will try and get their warrant endorsed there before we land."

"They have a warrant, then?" Mr. Sabin remarked.

"They showed me something of the sort," the captain answered scornfully. "And it is signed by the Kaiser. But, of course, here it isn't worth the paper it is written on, and America would never give you up without a special extradition treaty."

Mr. Sabin smiled. He had calculated all the chances nicely, and a volume of international law was lying at that moment in his state-room face downwards.

"I think," he said, "that I am quite safe from arrest, but at the same time, Captain, I am very sorry to be such a troublesome pa.s.senger to you."

The captain shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, it is not your fault," he said; "but I have made up my mind about one thing. I am not going to stop my ship this side of Boston Harbour for anything afloat. We have lost half a day already."

"If the Cunard Company will send me the extra coal bill," Mr. Sabin said, "I will pay it cheerfully, for I am afraid that both stoppages have been on my account."

"Bosh!" The Captain, who was moving away, stopped short. "You had nothing to do with these New Yorkers and their broken-down yacht."

Mr. Sabin finished lighting a cigarette which he had taken from his case, and, pa.s.sing his arm through the captain's, drew him a little further away from the gangway.

"I'm afraid I had," he said. "As a matter of fact they are not New Yorkers, and they are not husband and wife. They are simply agents in the pay of the German secret police."

"What, spies!" the captain exclaimed.

Mr. Sabin nodded.

"Exactly!"

The captain was still incredulous. "Do you mean to tell me," he exclaimed, "that charming little woman is not an American at all?--that she is a fraud?"

"There isn't a shadow of a doubt about it," Mr. Sabin replied. "They have both tacitly admitted it. As a matter of fact I am in treaty now to buy them over. They were on the point of accepting my terms when these fellows boarded us. Whether they will do so now I cannot tell. I saw that fellow Graisheim talking to the man just before they left the vessel."

"You are safe while you are on my ship, Mr. Sabin," the captain said firmly. "I shall watch that fellow Watson closely, and if he gives me the least chance, I will have him put in irons. Confound the man and his plausible----"

They were interrupted by the deck steward, who came with a message from Mrs. Watson. She was making tea on deck--might she have the loan of the captain's table, and would they come?

The captain gave the necessary a.s.sent, but was on the point of declining the invitation. "I don't want to go near the people," he said.

"On the other hand," Mr. Sabin objected, "I do not want them to think, at present at any rate, that I have told you who they are. You had better come."

They crossed the deck to a sunny little corner behind one of the boats, where Mrs. Watson had just completed her preparation for tea.

She greeted them gaily and chatted to them while they waited for the kettle to boil, but to Mr. Sabin's observant eyes there was a remarkable change in her. Her laughter was forced and she was very pale.

Several times Mr. Sabin caught her watching him in an odd way as though she desired to attract his attention, but Mr. Watson, who for once had seemed to desert the smoking-room, remained by her side like a shadow. Mr. Sabin felt that his presence was ominous. The tea was made and handed round.

Mr. Watson sent away the deck steward, who was preparing to wait upon them, and did the honours himself. He pa.s.sed the sugar to the captain and stood before Mr. Sabin with the sugar-tongs in his hand.

"Sugar?" he inquired, holding out a lump.

Mr. Sabin took sugar, and was on the point of holding out his cup. Just then he chanced to glance across to Mrs. Watson. Her eyes were dilated and she seemed to be on the point of springing from her chair. Meeting his glance she shook her head, and then bent over her hot water apparatus.

"No sugar, thanks," Mr. Sabin answered. "This tea looks too good to spoil by any additions. One of the best things I learned in Asia was to take my tea properly. Help yourself, Mr. Watson."

Mr. Watson rather clumsily dropped the piece of sugar which he had been holding out to Mr. Sabin, and the ship giving a slight lurch just at that moment, it rolled down the deck and apparently into the sea. With a little remark as to his clumsiness he resumed his seat.

Mr. Sabin looked into his tea and across to Mrs. Watson. The slightest of nods was sufficient for him. He drank it off and asked for some more.

The tea party on the whole was scarcely a success. The Captain was altogether upset and quite indisposed to be amiable towards people who had made a dupe of him. Mrs. Watson seemed to be suffering from a state of nervous excitement, and her husband was glum and silent. Mr. Sabin alone appeared to be in good spirits, and he talked continually with his customary ease and polish.

The Captain did not stay very long, and upon his departure Mr. Sabin also rose.

"Am I to have the pleasure of taking you for a little walk, Mrs. Watson?" he asked.

She looked doubtfully at the tall, glum figure by her side, and her face was almost haggard.

"I'm afraid--I think--I think--Mr. Watson has just asked me to walk with him," she said, lamely; "we must have our stroll later on."

"I shall be ready and delighted at any time," Mr. Sabin answered with a bow.

"We are going to have a moon to-night; perhaps you may be tempted to walk after dinner."

He ignored the evident restraint of both the man and the woman and strolled away. Having nothing in particular to do he went into his deck cabin to dress a little earlier than usual, and when he had emerged the dinner gong had not yet sounded.

The deck was quite deserted, and lighting a cigarette d'appet.i.t, he strolled past the scene of their tea-party. A dark object under the boat attracted his attention. He stooped down and looked at it. Thomas, the ship's cat, was lying there stiff and stark, and by the side of his outstretched tongue a lump of sugar.

CHAPTER XLVI.

MR. WATSON IS ASTONISHED.

At dinner-time Mr. Sabin was the most silent of the little quartette who occupied the head of the table. The captain, who had discovered that notwithstanding their stoppage they had made a very fair day's run, and had just noticed a favourable change in the wind, was in a better humour, and on the whole was disposed to feel satisfied with himself for the way he had repulsed the captain of the Kaiser Wilhelm. He departed from his usual custom so far as to drink a gla.s.s of Mr. Sabin's champagne, having first satisfied himself as to the absence of any probability of fog. Mr. Watson, too, was making an effort to appear amiable, and his wife, though her colour seemed a trifle hectic and her laughter not altogether natural, contributed her share to the conversation. Mr. Sabin alone was curiously silent and distant. Many times he had escaped death by what seemed almost a fluke; more often than most men he had been at least in danger of losing it. But this last adventure had made a distinct and deep impression upon him. He had not seriously believed that the man Watson was prepared to go to such lengths; he recognised for the first time his extreme danger. Then as regards the woman he was genuinely puzzled. He owed her his life, he could not doubt it. She had given him the warning by which he had profited, and she had given it him behind his companion's back. He was strongly inclined to believe in her. Still, she was doubtless in fear of the man. Her whole appearance denoted it. She was still, without doubt, his tool, willing or unwilling.

They lingered longer than usual over their dessert. It was noticeable that throughout their conversation all mention of the events of the day was excluded. A casual remark of Mr. Watson's the captain had ignored. There was an obvious inclination to avoid the subject. The captain was on the qui vive all the time, and he promptly quashed any embarra.s.sing remark. So far as Mrs. Watson was concerned there was certainly no fear of her exhibiting any curiosity. It was hard to believe that she was the same woman who had virtually taken the conversation into her own hands on the previous evening, and had talked to them so well and so brightly. She sat there, white and cowed, looking a great deal at Mr. Sabin with sad, far-away eyes, and seldom originating a remark. Mr. Watson, on the contrary, talked incessantly, in marked contrast to his previous silence; he drank no wine, but seemed in the best of spirits. Only once did he appear at a loss, and that was when the captain, helping himself to some nuts, turned towards Mr. Sabin and asked a question-- "I wonder, Mr. Sabin, whether you ever heard of an Indian nut called, I believe, the Fakella? They say that an oil distilled from its kernel is the most deadly poison in the world."

"I have both heard of it and seen it," Mr. Sabin answered. "In fact, I may say, that I have tasted it--on the tip of my finger."

"And yet," the captain remarked, laughing, "you are alive."

"And yet I am alive," Mr. Sabin echoed. "But there is nothing very wonderful in that. I am poison-proof."

Mr. Watson was in the act of raising a hastily filled gla.s.s to his lips when his eyes met Mr. Sabin's. He set it down hurriedly, white to the lips. He knew, then! Surely there must be something supernatural about the man. A conviction of his own absolute impotence suddenly laid hold of him. He was completely shaken. Of what use were the ordinary weapons of his kind against an antagonist such as this? He knew nothing of the silent evidence against him on deck. He could only attribute Mr. Sabin's foreknowledge of what had been planned against him to the miraculous. He stumbled to his feet, and muttering something about some cigars, left his place. Mrs. Watson rose almost immediately afterwards. As she turned to walk down the saloon she dropped her handkerchief. Mr. Sabin, who had risen while she pa.s.sed out, stooped down and picked it up. She took it with a smile of thanks and whispered in his ear-- "Come on deck with me quickly; I want to speak to you."

He obeyed, turning round and making some mute sign to the captain. She walked swiftly up the stairs after a frightened glance down the corridor to their state-rooms. A fresh breeze blew in their faces as they stepped out on deck, and Mr. Sabin glanced at her bare neck and arms.