She left him, and Lutchester, after a few brief words with the Ambassador, hurried away to his task. In twenty minutes he stood before a tall, grey-stone building, a few blocks away, was admitted by a Japanese butler, and conducted, after some hesitation, into a large room at the back of the house. An elderly man, dressed for the evening, with the lapel of his coat covered with orders, was awaiting him.
“I am a stranger to you, Baron,” Lutchester began.
“That does not matter,” was the grave reply. “Ten minutes ago I had an urgent telephone call from our mutual friend. His Excellency told me that he was sending a special messenger, and begged me to give you a few minutes. I have left a conference of some importance, and I am here.”
“A few minutes will be enough,” Lutchester promised. “I am engaged by the English Government upon Secret Service work. I came to America, following a man named Fischer. You have heard of him?”
“I have heard of him,” the Ambassador acknowledged.
“In New York,” Lutchester continued, “he met one of your countrymen, Prince Nikasti, a man, I may add,” Lutchester went on, “for whom I have the highest respect and esteem, although quite openly, years ago, he pronounced himself unfavourably disposed towards my country. The object of Fischer’s meeting with Prince Nikasti was to convey to him certain definite proposals on behalf of the German Government. They wish for a rapprochement with your country. They offer certain terms, confirmation of which Fischer brought with him in an autograph letter.”
There was a moment’s silence. Not a word came from the man who seemed to have learnt the gift of sitting with absolute immovability. Even his eyes did not blink. He sat and waited.
“The proposals made to you are plausible and deserving of consideration,” Lutchester proceeded. “Do not think that there exists in my mind, or would exist in the mind of any Englishman knowing of them, any feeling of resentment that these proposals should have been received by you for consideration. Nothing in this world counts to those who follow the arts of diplomacy, save the simple welfare of the people whom he represents. It is therefore the duty of every patriot to examine carefully all proposals made to him likely to militate to the advantage of his own people. You have a letter, offering you certain terms to withdraw from your present alliances. Here is a letter from the same source, in the same handwriting, written to America. Break the seal yourself. It was brought to this country by Fischer, in the same dispatch box as yours, to be handed to some responsible person in the American Government. It was handed to Senator Theodore Hastings. It is to form part of his platform on the day when his nomination as President is announced. It must be back in his safe within three-quarters of an hour. Break the seal and read it.”
The Japanese held out his hand, broke the seal of the envelope, and read. His face remained immovable. When he had finished he looked up at his visitor.
“I am permitted to take a copy?” he asked.
“Certainly!”
He touched a bell, spoke down a mouthpiece, and with almost necromantic swiftness two young men were in the room. A camera was dragged out, a little flash of light shot up to the ceiling, and the attaches vanished as quickly as they had come. The Ambassador replaced the document in its envelope, handed a stick of sealing-wax and a candle to Lutchester, who leaned over and resealed the envelope.
“The negative?” he enquired.
“Will be kept under lock and key,” the Ambassador promised. “It will pass into the archives of Japanese history. In future we shall know.”
Once more he touched a bell. The door was opened. Lutchester found himself escorted into the street. He was back at the Embassy in time to meet a little stream of departing guests. Lady Ridlingshawe patted him on the shoulder with her fan.
“Deserter!” she exclaimed, reproachfully, “Wherever have you been hiding?”
Lutchester made some light reply and passed on. He made his way out into the gardens. The darkness now was a little more sombre, and he had to grope his way to the palings. Soon he stood before the dark outline of the adjoining house. In the window towards which he was making his way a single candle in a silver candlestick was burning. He paused underneath and listened. Then he took a pine cone which he had picked up on his way and threw it through the open window. The candle was withdrawn. A shadowy form leaned out.
“I’m quite alone,” she assured him softly. “Can you throw it in?”
He nodded.
“I think so.”
His first effort was successful. The seal followed, wrapped up in his handkerchief. A moment or two later he saw Pamela’s face at the window.
“Good night!” she whispered. “Quickly, please. There is still some one about downstairs.”
The light was extinguished. Lutchester made his way cautiously back, replaced the gate upon its hinges and reached the shelter of the Embassy, denuded now of guests. He found Downing in the smoking-room.
“Can I get a whisky and soda?” Lutchester asked, in response to the latter’s vociferous greeting.
“Call it a highball,” was the prompt reply, “and you can have as many as you like. Have you earned it?” he added, a little curiously.
“I almost believe that I have,” Lutchester assented.
CHAPTER XXXV
Table of Contents
Mr. Oscar Fischer and his friend, Senator Theodore Hastings, stood side by side, a week later, in the bar of one of the most fashionable of New York hotels. They were passing away the few minutes before Pamela and her aunt would be ready to join them in the dining room above.
“Very little news, I fancy,” Hastings remarked, glancing at the tape which was passing through his companion’s fingers.
“Nothing—of any importance,” Fischer replied. “Nothing.”
The older man glanced searchingly at his companion, the change in whose tone was ominous. Fischer was standing with the tape in his hand, his eyes glued upon a certain paragraph. The Senator took out his eyeglasses and looked over his friend’s shoulder.
“What’s this?” he demanded. “Eh?”
Fischer was fighting a great battle and fighting it well.
“Something wrong, apparently, with Frank Roughton,” he observed; “an old college friend of mine. They made him Governor of——only last year.”
Hastings read the item thoughtfully.
Governor Roughton this morning tendered his resignation as Governor of the State of——. We understand that it was at once accepted. Numerous arrests have taken place with reference to the great explosion at the Bembridge powder factory.
“Looks rather fishy, that,” Hastings observed thoughtfully.
“I’m sorry for Roughton,” Fischer declared. “He was a perfectly straight man, and I am sure he has done his best.”
“Great friend of yours?” the other asked curiously.
“We were intimately acquainted,” was the brief answer.
The two men finished their cocktails in silence. On their way upstairs the Senator took his companion’s arm.
“Fischer,” he said, “you’ll forgive me if I put a certain matter to you plainly?”
“Naturally!”
“Within the last few days,” Hastings proceeded, “there have been seven explosions or fires at various factories throughout the States. It is a somewhat significant circumstance,” he added, after a slight pause, “that every one of these misfortunes has occurred at a factory where munitions of some sort for the Allies have been in process of manufacture. Shrewd men have naturally come to the conclusion that there is some organisation at work.”
“I should doubt it,” Fischer replied. “You must remember that there is always a great risk of disasters in factories where explosives are being handled. It is a new thing to many of the manufacturers here, and it is obvious that they are not making use of all the necessary precautions.”
“I see,” Hastings observed, reflectively. “So that is how you would explain this epidemic of disasters, eh?”
&
nbsp; “Certainly!”
“At the same time, Fischer, to set my mind entirely at rest,” Hastings continued, “I should like your assurance that you have nothing whatever to do with any organisation, should there be such a thing, including in its object the destruction of American property.”
“I will do more than answer your question in the direct negative,” was the firm reply. “I will assure you that no such organisation exists.”
“I am relieved to hear it,” Hastings confessed. “This resignation of Roughton, however, seems a strange thing. Most of these fires have occurred in his State…. Ah! there is Senator Joyce waiting for us, and Pamela and Mrs. Hastings.”
Mr. Hastings as a host was in his element. His manners and tact, which his enemies declared were far too perfect, were both admirably displayed in the smaller ways of life. He guided the conversation into light yet opportune subjects, and he utterly ignored the fact that Senator Joyce, one of the great politicians of the day, whose support of his nomination was already more than half promised, seemed distrait and a little cold. It was Pamela who quite inadvertently steered the conversation into a dangerous channel.
“What has Governor Roughton been doing, Mr. Fischer?” she asked.
There was a moment’s silence. Pamela’s question had fallen something like a bombshell amongst the little party. It was their guest who replied.
“The matter is occupying the attention of the country very largely at the moment, Miss Van Teyl,” he said. “It is perhaps unfortunate that Governor Roughton seems to have allowed his sympathies to be so clearly known.”
“He is a German by birth, is he not?” Pamela inquired.
“Most decidedly not,” Fischer asserted. “I was at Harvard with him.”
“All the same,” Pamela murmured under her breath, “I think that he was born at Stuttgart.”
“He is an American citizen,” Senator Joyce observed, “and has reached a high position here. We of the Administration may be wrong,” he continued, “but we believe, and we think that we have a right to believe, that when any man of conscience and ideals takes the oath, he is free from all previous prejudices. He is an American citizen— nothing more and nothing less.”
“Of course, that is magnificent,” Pamela declared, “but it isn’t common sense, is it, and you haven’t answered my original question yet.”
“I am not in a position to do so, Miss Van Teyl,” Joyce replied. “The trouble probably is that Governor Roughton has been considered incompetent as so many of these disasters have taken place unhindered in his State.”
“There was a rumour,” Pamela persisted, “that he was under arrest.”
“Quite untrue, I am sure,” Fischer muttered.
There was a general diversion of the conversation, but the sense of uneasiness remained. Pamela and Mrs. Hastings, at the conclusion of the little banquet, acting upon a hint from their host, made their way to one of the small drawing-rooms for their coffee. Left alone, the three men drew their chairs closer together. Joyce’s fine face seemed somehow to have become a little harder and more unsympathetic. He sipped the water, which was his only beverage, and pushed away the cigars in which he generally indulged.
“Mr. Hastings,” he pronounced, “I have given the subject of supporting your nomination my deepest consideration. I was at one time, I must confess, favourably disposed towards the idea. I have changed my mind. I have decided to give my support to the present Administration.”
Fischer’s face was dark with anger. He even allowed an expletive to escape from his lips. Hastings, however, remained master of himself.
“I will not conceal from you, Mr. Joyce,” he confessed, “that I am exceedingly disappointed. You have fully considered everything, I presume—our pledge, for instance, to nominate you as my successor?”
“I have considered everything,” Joyce replied. “The drawback in my mind, to be frank with you, is that I doubt whether you would receive sufficient support throughout the country. It is my idea,” he went on, “although I may be wrong, of course, that the support of the German-Americans who, you must allow me to maintain, are an exceedingly unneutral part of America, will place you in an unpopular position. Should you succeed in getting yourself elected, which I very much doubt, you will be an unpopular President. I would rather wait my time.”
“You have changed your views,” Fischer muttered.
“To be perfectly frank with you, I have,” Joyce acknowledged. “These outrages throughout the States are, to my mind, blatant and criminal. Directly or indirectly, the German-American public is responsible for them—indirectly, by inflammatory speeches, reckless journalism, and point-blank laudation of illegal acts; directly—well, here I can speak only from my own suspicions, so I will remain silent. But my mind is made up. A man in this country, as you know,” he added, “need make only one mistake and his political future is blasted. I am not inclined to risk making that one mistake.”
Hastings sighed. He was making a brave effort to conceal a great disappointment.
“One cannot argue with you, Mr. Joyce,” he regretted. “You have come to a certain conclusion, and words are not likely to alter it. There is no one I would so dearly have loved to number amongst my supporters, but I see that it is a privilege for which I may not hope…. We will, if you are ready, Fischer, join the ladies.”
They rose from the table a few minutes later.
Fischer, who had been eagerly watching his opportunity, drew Senator Joyce on one side for a moment as they passed down the crowded corridor.
“Mr. Joyce,” he said, “I have heard your decision to-night with deeper regret than I can express, yet more than ever it has brought home one truth to me. Our position towards you was a wrong one. We offered you a reversion when we should have offered you the thing itself.”
Senator Joyce swung around.
“Say, Mr. Fischer, what are you getting at?” he asked bluntly.
“I mean that it is Hastings and I who should have been your supporters, and you who should have been our candidate,” Fischer suggested boldly. “What about it? It isn’t too late.”
“Nothing doing, sir,” was the firm reply. “Theodore Hastings may not be exactly my type of man, but I am not out to see him cornered like that, and besides, to tell you the honest truth, Mr. Fischer,” he added, pausing at the door, “when I stand for the Presidency, I want to do so not on the nomination of you or your friends, or any underground schemers. I want the support of the real American citizen. I want to be free from, all outside ties and obligations. I want to stand for America, and America only, I not only want to be President, you see, but I want to be the chosen President of the right sort of people…. I am going to ask you to excuse me to the ladies and our host, Mr. Fischer,” he concluded, holding out his hand. “I had a note asking me to visit the Attorney General, which I only received on my way here. I have an idea that it is about this Roughton business.”
Fischer returned to the others alone. Hastings was clearly disturbed at his guest’s departure. His friend and supporter, however, affected to treat it lightly.
“Joyce is like all these lawyers,” he declared. “He is simply waiting to see which way the wind blows. I have come across them many times. They like to wait till parties are evenly balanced, till their support makes all the difference, and clinch their bargain then.”
“I should have said,” Pamela remarked, “that Mr. Joyce was a man above that sort of thing.”
“Every man has his price and his weak spot,” her uncle observed didactically. “Joyce’s price is the Presidency. His weak spot is popular adulation. I agree with Fischer. He will probably join us later.”
Mr. Hastings was summoned to the telephone, a moment or two later. Mrs. Hastings sat down to write a note, and Pamela moved her place over to Fischer’s side. His face brightened at her spontaneous movement. She shook her head, however, at the little compliment with which he welcomed her.
“This afternoon,” she said softly, �
��I met Mr. Lutchester.”
“Is he back in New York?” Fischer asked, frowning.
Pamela nodded.
“He told me something which I feel inclined to tell you,” she continued, glancing into her companion’s haggard face with a gleam of sympathy in her eyes. “You’ll probably see it in the newspapers to-morrow morning. Governor Roughton’s resignation was compulsory. He is under arrest.”
“For negligence?”
“For participation,” was the grave reply. “Mr. Lutchester has been down to— the city where these things took place. He only got back late this afternoon.”
“Lutchester again!” Fischer muttered.
“You see, it’s rather in his line,” Pamela reminded him. “He is over here to superintend the production of munitions from the factories which are working for the British Government.”
“He is over here as a sort of general mischief-maker!” Fischer exclaimed fiercely. “Do I understand that he has been down in——?”
Pamela nodded.
“He went down with one of the heads of the New York police.”
She turned away, but Fischer caught at her wrist.
“You know more than this!” he cried hoarsely.
The agony in the man’s face and tone touched her. After all, he was fighting for the great things. There was nothing mean about Fischer, nothing selfish about his lying and his crimes.
“I have told you all that I can,” she whispered, “but if you hurried, you could catch the New York to-night—and I think I should advise you to go.”
CHAPTER XXXVI
Table of Contents
Fischer, on leaving his unsuccessful dinner party, drove direct to the residence of Mr. Max H. Bookam, in Fifth Avenue. The butler who admitted him looked a little blank at his inquiry.
“Mr. Bookam was expected home yesterday, sir,” he announced. “He has not arrived, however.”
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