Dennis Wheatley - Duke de Richleau 07

by The Second Seal

  “Ah well, Excellency, it is not so necessary for a General to be a crack shot. Still, when I become a General myself in a few weeks’ time, situations may yet arise in which I shall find it useful.”

  De Richleau raised his dark eyebrows. “I congratulate you, Major, on your prospects of such rapid promotion.”

  “The Chief tells me that you are to be one of us,” declared the Serbian, with a shrug of his bull-like shoulders, “so there is no point in concealing the matter. Marko Ciganović, who you met with me when you were here before, and I are content with lowly ranks for the moment. So is the Chief himself. But all that will be changed in a fortnight or so. The Voyvode Putnik is to be retained as Commander-in-Chief, because he is a great soldier. But all other matters will be directed by Dimitriyevitch openly, with myself and Ciganović as his right hand and his left.”

  “Good luck to you then, General,” said the Duke amiably, with a mock salute, as he thought to himself: ‘So once a state of war has been declared, and what little liberty there is in Serbia has been suppressed by emergency decrees, these three thugs mean to run the country between them. I wonder how King Peter will like that idea?’

  Returning the salute with a wink, Tankosić led the way back into the house and called for drinks. Then they sat chatting over them in the big lounge, which held the hunting trophies, old masters and Persian rugs, until Dimitriyevitch arrived in his Rolls, accompanied by the chinless, pale-eyed Captain Ciganović.

  Over dinner no mention whatever was made of the future, but the little Colonel questioned De Richleau closely about his stay in Austria and, having good grounds for supposing Dimitriyevitch’s espionage system there to be excellent, the Duke was much too wily to tell any lies. He confirmed the Serbian opinion that the Austrian officers were a happy-go-lucky lot, who thought much more about amusing themselves than training their troops, and spoke of having made the acquaintance of a number of important people, including the Heir Apparent; although he refrained from mentioning that he had actually entertained the Archduke, as he did not wish to stress the fact unnecessarily that his relations with the Austrians were as cordial as was actually the case. When asked his opinion of Franz Ferdinand, he replied:

  “He is no fool and takes a keen interest in his duties, particularly where army matters are concerned; but he is inclined to be morose by nature and his marriage has added greatly to his unpopularity with the Austrian aristocracy. His wife has great influence with him, and having been courted herself by Wilhelm II she has used it to make him strongly pro-German. They are to entertain the Kaiser at Konopischt for three days this week.”

  “I know it,” nodded the Colonel. “And afterwards, he is to be present at the army manœvres which this year are to take place in Bosnia in considerable strength. Tell me, now, your impressions of von Hötzendorf, Count Tisza, Count Hoyos, and the others whom you met.”

  For over an hour De Richleau discoursed on these personalities, and conditions as he had found them in Austria. Then, when the servants had gone for the night, Dimitriyevitch stroked back his brush of hair, and said:

  “I asked you here to-night so that I could take you with me straight to the office in the morning. Later Ciganović will take you to his tailor, so that you can be measured for your uniform, but the man is not to be told what badges of rank to put on it yet. For the time being you can quite well do all that is required of you in civilian clothes. Belgrade is a small place, and I don’t want it to get about that you are to serve in a high position on our General Staff. It is lots of little pointers like that, taken together, which make a picture; and we must be careful not to set the Austrians at the Legation thinking. I will arrange for your initiation into our Brotherhood towards the end of the week, and also for you to be presented to His Majesty. In the meantime you can get a general view of our plans and resources, and meet various people with whom your duties are likely to bring you into frequent contact.”

  Nothing was said that night of the Black Hand’s secret intentions, and De Richleau felt that it would be indiscreet to lead the conversation in that direction, so he confined his questions to matters concerning the state of things in Serbia generally, and they talked mainly about the country until they went to bed.

  Next day the Duke was installed in a small but pleasant room at the War Office, in the same corridor as that occupied by Dimitriyevitch, and provided with an aide-de-camp whose name was Basil Militchevitch. He was a tall young man with a sad expression and large, sloe-black eyes, but he seemed intelligent and anxious to please his new master. The Colonel then unlocked a safe in De Richleau’s room, gave him the key, and showed him a row of files inside it, the contents of which he was asked to master as soon as possible.

  Nothing loath, he at once set to work upon them but, to his disappointment, a quick run through showed that they contained nothing that was not of a purely military nature.

  That afternoon he was introduced to the Commander-in-Chief, Radomir Putnik, who received him very affably and conversed with him for over an hour on the Balkan campaigns, during which they had been in opposite camps. Putnik was a stalwart grey-bearded man, and the Duke already had a high respect for him as a shrewd and able soldier. Now that he met him personally, he formed the impression that he was by nature a straightforward upright character who, normally, would have had nothing to do with the Black Hand. No mention of it was made between them, but the C. in C. made it clear that De Richleau should look to Dimitriyevitch for his orders, so he could only assume that the gang either had General Putnik in its toils, or his patriotism was such that he preferred to continue to serve his country by remaining at the head of the army, to opposing them and risking being ousted through their intrigues.

  De Richleau formed a very similar impression of the Serbian Prime Minister, M. Nikola Pastich, when Dimitriyevitch took him to lunch with the statesman on the following day. Pastich made no secret of his desire to see the Serbian population of Bosnia freed from the Austrian yoke, but he was broadminded, tolerant, and cultured, and it was clear that he hoped that a betterment of their state might be brought about by diplomatic measures.

  The Foreign Minister, with whom De Richleau was to work in close collaboration, was also there; and of him the Duke took by no means such a good view. He was obviously hand in glove with Dimitriyevitch and almost fawned upon the powerful Chief of the secret society which had such a strangle-hold on Serbian affairs.

  During the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the Duke met a number of other key men in the Serbian Government and Army, and, between whiles, devoted himself to going through the papers he had been asked to study. That which he found by far the most interesting was a copy of the Austrian war plans, or an appreciation of their probable plans drafted by the Serbian General Staff. On reading it, he could not determine which, as none of the papers was an original—they were all translations that had been made for his benefit into French before his arrival—but on asking Dimitriyevitch about it, he learned that it had been compiled from stolen documents and other reliable information, so could be graded as A. l material.

  It disclosed that Austria could put six armies into the field, and the dispositions they would take in two different eventualities.

  Plan A was in the event of war with Serbia alone. In this case the 5th and 6th Austrian armies, which were based on Bosnia and Herzegovina, would invade Serbia from the west, while their 2nd army, which was based on Hungary, would do so from the north, and the remaining 1st, 3rd and 4th armies would move to precautionary positions in Galicia to guard against possible Russian intervention. The intention here, as von Hötzendorf had himself told the Duke, was to fling every man that could be spared with safety against Serbia as swiftly as possible, with the object of overwhelming her completely before any other power made up its mind to intervene on her behalf. It was further appreciated that a swift, decisive victory’ over Serbia offered the best chance of preventing the war spreading. If it could be achieved, even should Russia decide to come
belatedly to the aid of her stricken protégé, by that time, the Serbian armies having been broken, Austria would be able to withdraw the bulk of her forces in the south to reinforce her armies in the north, and thus have a good hope of also defeating Russia.

  Plan B envisaged war with Serbia and Russia simultaneously. In this case, it was argued, in view of the great weight of the Russian armies, it would be most unwise to risk any serious embroilment which would detract from the number of Austrian troops that could be brought against the bigger enemy. Moreover, as it was known that the Russian armies would take considerably longer to mobilize than the Austrian, it was hoped that by concentrating all available forces in the north to start with, Austria might obtain an initial victory which would cripple Russia for some months to come. That would later enable a strong offensive to be launched against Serbia, who, up till then, was merely to be held at bay. In pursuance of these ideas, the 5th and 6th Austrian armies were, as before, to operate against Serbia from the west, but the 2nd army was to join the 1st, 3rd and 4th on the Russian front.

  The disposal of the Austrian 2nd army was, therefore, the only apparent difference between the two plans, but a glance at the composition of the armies soon showed De Richleau that there was much more to it than that. They were not all of the same strength; the 5th and 6th being considerably weaker than any of the others, with only three corps

  (Each square represents an army)

  between them, and the 2nd having four corps, which made it stronger than the other two together. As the total number of corps available was fifteen, this meant that if Plan A was put into operation eight corps would be retained to guard the Russian frontier, while seven corps attacked Serbia on two fronts; whereas, should Austria be forced to adopt Plan B, she would send twelve corps against Russia and only three corps would be allocated to operations against Serbia on a single front.

  From other papers the Duke learned that General Putnik, with commendable caution, intended to concentrate the whole of the Serbian army in a central position until it became clear which of the two plans Austria was putting into operation. If it proved to be Plan B he would then be well justified in launching a strong offensive into Bosnia: but if it proved to be Plan A he would find himself attacked from the west and north simultaneously by two forces, both roughly equal in numbers to his own. The difference in these prospects was little less than a good hope of the swift conquest of Bosnia and facing annihilation between two fires.

  It had been obvious from the beginning that it would be enormously to Serbia’s advantage if she could draw Russia in; but now it was clear to De Richleau that it was positively imperative to the success of Dimitriyevitch’s plans that he should do so. Everything hung upon it: and with that conclusion was gone one of the last hopes that the machinations of the Black Hand would not result in plunging the whole of Europe into war.

  Terribly conscious that the fateful days were passing, the Duke lost no opportunity of probing for information about that sinister secret society, whenever he could do so without appearing unjustifiably curious; but all his tentative inquiries drew a blank until Saturday, the 20th. On that morning Dimitriyevitch told him that a car would call at his hotel at ten o’clock that evening to take him out to the châlet, and that he would then be initiated there.

  Striving to suppress his impatience, De Richleau got through the rest of the day wondering what the night would bring.

  CHAPTER XV - THE SECRET OF THE BLACK HAND

  The car arrived punctually with his own A.D.C., Militchevitch, as its driver. As it was nearly the longest day of the year, when they left the town a gentle after-glow still lit the fields. But there was no moon and when they reached the châlet the dark forest surrounded it with a belt of blackness.

  In the hallway Militchevitch asked the Duke to wait for a few minutes and went into a room at the back of the house. When he came out he was wearing a long white woollen cloak and hood, which completely hid his uniform and concealed the shape of his head, and black kid gloves. A black mask covered his features and on the right breast of the cloak a fist holding a dagger was embroidered in black silk. After he had given five quick knocks at irregular intervals on the door of the main room, a voice called ‘Enter’ and he led De Richleau inside.

  There were about twenty people present. They were seated in a long line behind a trestle table which had been covered with a green baize cloth. All identity was concealed by cloaks, hoods and masks similar to those worn by Militchevitch. In front of them, on the table, lay a dagger pointing outwards. Militchevitch signed to the Duke to stand at the middle of the table and sat down himself at a small one in a far corner.

  The room was lit only by two candles, the dim light adding to its atmosphere of sinister mystery and making it even more difficult to identify any of those present; but when the central figure in the line spoke, De Richleau had no doubt at all that he was being addressed by Dimitriyevitch.

  The Colonel put to him a number of questions. They were obviously a ritual formula and began with inquiries as to his name, age, place of birth, etc.; then as to his willingness to devote himself to the cause of Serbia to the exclusion of all else, and without thought of self, to the point of sacrificing rank, fortune, wife and family, culminating in life itself. It was not until they were half-way through that De Richleau noticed that Militchevitch was taking down his answers in a big vellum-bound book: but he answered every question firmly and in the sense expected.

  When the interrogation was completed the book was brought for him to sign. Then a bible was produced and he was told to place one hand on it and the other on the book, and to swear by his hope of salvation to the truth of the answers he had made. He had felt certain that he would be faced with some such demand, and had he not already made up his mind to accede to it he would not have come there: so, praying God to forgive him his perjury, he took the oath.

  Next, Dimitriyevitch laid on the table something that looked like a thick piece of yellow, shrivelled leather. It was roughly circular, about four inches in diameter, and perforated with scores of small holes. Handing De Richleau the dagger he said slowly: “This was one of the breasts of the infamous Queen Draga, which I cut off while she was still living, on the night that justice was done upon her. Plunge the dagger into it as a symbolical act that you would do the same to anyone who dishonoured Serbia.”

  Repressing a motion of repulsion, the Duke did as he was bid.

  One of the brotherhood then appeared with a chalice three parts filled with wine. Dimitriyevitch took the dagger, pricked his left thumb with it and pressed until a drop of blood splashed into the liquor. Returning the dagger to the Duke he bade him do likewise, then the chalice was passed up and down the table until each of the masked and hooded company had done the same. When this grim loving cup was returned to Dimitriyevitch he offered it with a bow to De Richleau and invited him to drink to the damnation of all enemies of Serbia. Again repressing any sign of disgust, the Duke lifted the horrid brew to his lips and sipped it. The Chief of the Brotherhood of Union or Death took a mouthful of it, and it was then passed from hand to hand until everyone present had followed suit.

  Finally, Dimitriyevitch addressed the neophyte in the following terms: “By your spiritual oath and the temporal bond of blood you are now one of our brotherhood. I welcome you to it; but at the same time I warn you that should you ever betray us in the least degree the worst of fates will be your portion. Any act of treachery will invoke our united curse, which will so prey upon your mind that, in due course, you will inevitably commit suicide and go unshriven to the grave.”

  While Dimitriyevitch had been speaking two others, whom he felt certain were Tankosić and Ciganović, had moved up with a mask, white hooded cloak, black kid gloves and dagger. With these they now ritually equipped the Duke as an accepted member of their order.

  He was much relieved to think that this unpleasant business was over. The mumbo-jumbo of it had struck him as extremely schoolboyish and had entirely
failed to impress him, except with a slight nausea. But he could imagine it having a profound effect upon the undeveloped mind of the average Serbian officer, who was only one generation removed from superstitious peasant stock. In particular, he considered that the final warning, that suicide would be the inevitable sequel to treachery, was a very clever piece of psychology. The suggestion of it was well calculated to beget the desired result among such semi-primitive men, and much more likely to deter them from betraying the society than any straightforward threat to seek out and kill them.

  These thoughts had hardly passed through his mind before Militchevitch appeared at his side again and indicated that he should leave the room. As he had expected to be offered a seat at the long table and allowed to take part in the further business of the gathering, he was most disagreeably surprised. He could only hope that his withdrawal was required merely temporarily, while the meeting discussed some question connected with himself. But, when he reached the hall, to his intense annoyance, Militchevitch began to relieve him of his cloak and other regalia.

  Hiding his disappointment as well as he could, he asked: “Are these things common property, or are they marked in some way so that I can identify them when I need them for the next meeting?”

  The tall, sloe-eyed young man smiled his sad smile, and replied: “You have been using one of the spare sets kept for such purposes, Excellency; and it is unlikely that you will need the loan of a set again. There are many hundreds of members of our brotherhood, but once they have been initiated very few of them are ever called upon to make a second appearance before the Grand Council. Excuse me, please, for a few moments now, as I must put these things away and I wish to go to the toilet before we start back.”