MISS MARY PRENDERGAST RISKS HER REPUTATION
The rooms of our were so that you pass from one to the other without going into the at all. Schmalz had retired this way, going from my room through the to his own room. In the of the moment I all about this, else I should not have such an as the of the door my room and the bathroom.
As I out into the corridor, with the crash of that still in my ears, I I the of a light step in the bathroom; the next moment I a door open and then a loud of in the room I had just left.
The was and deserted. The place uninhabited. No the rooms, and open doors, one after the other, were that the they to were untenanted.
I didn't pause to or to plan. On that long out of horror, I the at top speed, it to the right and then, of a small staircase, up it three steps at a time. As I the top I a loud on the below. Then a door banged, there was the of and ... silence.
I myself on the next in a to the one I had just left. Like it, it was and lit. Like it, it room after room and empty. Agitated as I was, the with the and and the of was so marked that it me with force. Even the hotels, it seemed, were part and parcel of the great German which I had noted in my reading of the German papers at Rotterdam.
I had no plan in my head, only a wild to put as much as possible me and that ape-man in the room below. So, after a moment to and breath, I started off again. Suddenly a door the corridor, not ten away from me, opened and a woman came out. I stopped in my course, but it was too late and I myself her.
She was and very with of thick a very white forehead. She was in dress, all in white, with an wrap.
Even as I looked at her I her and she me.
"Monica," I whispered.
"Why! Desmond!" she said.
A regular from below. Voices were out, doors were banging, there was the of feet.
The girl was speaking, saying in her low and voice phrases that were to me about her surprise, her at me. But I did not to her. I was my ears that of which came up from below.
"Monica!" I swiftly, "have you any place to me? This place is for me.... I must away. If you can't save me, don't here but away as fast as you can. They're after me and if they catch you with me it will be for you!"
Without a word the girl to the room she had just left. She to me, then and in. I her. It was a big, bedroom, with a soft and hangings, and I know not what, with lights and flowers in profusion. Sitting up in was a stout, placid-looking woman in a pink with her in two which on either of her face.
Monica closed the door her.
"Why, Monica!" she in horror—and her speech was that of the United States—"what on earth ...?"
"Not a word, Mary, but let me explain...."
"But for land's sake, Monica...."
"Mary, I want you to help...."
"But say, child, a man ... in my ... at this time o' night...."
"Oh, shucks, Mary! let me talk."
The of the woman in was so that I help laughing. She had the bed-clothes up till only her be seen. Her about in her emotion.
"Now, Mary dear, here. You're a friend of mine. This is Desmond Okewood, another, a very old and dear friend of mine too. Well, you know, Mary, this isn't a healthy country these times for an English officer. That's what Desmond here is. I didn't know he was in Germany. I don't know a thing about him what he's told me and that's that he's in and wants me to help him. I met him and him right in here, as I know you would want me to, wouldn't you, dear?"
The lady her nose over the top of the bed-clothes.
"Present the properly, Monica!" she said severely.
"Captain Okewood ... Miss Mary Prendergast," said Monica.
The lady's head, and all, now appeared. She appeared to be mollified.
"I can't say I approve of your way of doing things, Monica," she observed, but less than before, "and I can't think what an English officer wants in my at ten minutes of two in the morning, but if those Deutschers want to him, I can understand!"
Here she on the girl at my side.
"Ah! Mary, you're a dear," Monica.
"I you'd help us. Why, a British officer in Germany ... isn't it too thrilling?"
She to me.
"But, Des," she said, "what do you want me to do?"
I I trust Monica and I I would trust her friend too... she looked a white woman all right. And if she was a friend of Monica's, her would be in the right place. Francis and I had Monica all our almost. Her father had for years ... to the day of his death ... in London as the European of a big American financial house. They had next door to us in London and Francis and I had Monica from the days when she was a kid in skirts until she had her and the American had presented her at Buckingham Palace. At of our lives, Francis and I had been in love with her, I believe, but my life in the army had me much abroad, so Francis had most of her and had been the hit.
Then the father died and Monica in great state, as a heiress, with a American and a of retainers. I the of the case her and Francis, but at one of the German abroad—I think in Vienna—she met the Count Rachwitz, of one of the great Silesian houses, and married him.
It was not on the rock—money—that this German-American marriage was wrecked, for the Count was very himself. I had that the German man's of mind had not the girl's on that Monica, a years after her marriage, had left her husband and gone to live in America. I had not her since she left London, and, though we to one another at intervals, I had not from her since the started and had no idea that she had returned to Germany. Monica Rachwitz was, in fact, the last person I should have to meet in Berlin in war-time.
So, as as I and for any from the corridor, I gave the two the of the of Francis and my into Germany to look for him. At the mention of my brother's name, I noticed that the girl and her rigid, but when I told her of my for his safety her to me to dim. I to them my in the hotel at Rotterdam, my in the house of General Boden, and my at the Castle, with the of that night, the for me at the hotel and my with Clubfoot in the room below. Two only I back: the message from Francis and the document. I myself that the people in those the they would be. I am afraid, therefore, that my account of my with the Emperor was a garbled, for I out that I did not know why I was to the presence and that our was I the reason.
The two with faces. Only once did Monica me. It was when I mentioned General Boden.
"I know the beast," she said. "But, oh, Des!" she exclaimed, "you to have right among the top set in this country. They're a to cross. I you are in terrible danger."
"I you, Monica," I answered, enough. "And that's just where I such a for myself upon your in this way. But I was when I met you just now and I didn't know where to turn. Still, I want you to that if you can only me out of this place I shall not trouble you further. I came to this country on my own and I'm going through with it alone. I have no of else along with me. But I I don't it is possible to away from this hotel. They're every door by now. Besides..."
I stopped abruptly. A noise my ear. Footsteps were along the corridor. I doors open and shut. They were for me, by floor, room by room.
"Open that wardrobe," said a voice from the bed: a firm, business-like voice that was good to hear. "Open it and right in, man; but don't go up my good you do! And you, Monica, quick! Switch off those lights all but this one by the bed. Good! Now go to the door and ask them what they by making this noise at this time of night with me and all!"
I got into the and Monica me in. I the door open, then voices. I waited for five minutes, then the door opened again.
"Come out, Des," said Monica, "and thank Mary Prendergast for her cleverness."
"What did they say?" I asked.
"That was along. He was most apologetic—they know me here, you see. He told me how a had a attack upon a on the and had got away. They he must be in the hotel. I told him I'd been here for an hour with Miss Prendergast and that we hadn't a sound. They away then!"
"You won't catch any Deutschers Mary Prendergast," said the lady in the bed; "but, children, what next?"
Monica spoke—quite calmly. She was always perfectly self-possessed.
"My is stopping with me in our in the Bendler-Strasse," she said. "You Gerry, Des—he got all up flying, you know, and is a cripple. He's been so much here that I've been trying to an to look after him, to dress him and so on, but we couldn't anybody; men are so nowadays! You come home with me, Des, and take this man's place for a day or two ... I'm it couldn't be longer, for one would have to register you with the police—every one has to be registered, you know—and I you have no papers that are any good—now."
"You are too kind, Monica," I answered, "but you too much and I can't accept."
"It's no for a day or two," she said. "I am a person of in official Germany, you know, with my husband A.D.C. to Marshal Mackensen: and I can always say I to send in your papers. If they come upon me I should say I meant to register you but had to you ... for drink!"
"But how can I away from here?" I objected.
"I we can that too," she replied. "My car is for me at two—it must be that now—I have been at a downstairs—one of the Radolin girls is married to-morrow—it was so I ran up here and up Mary Prendergast to talk. You shall be my chauffeur! I know you drive a car! You ought to be able to manage mine ... it's a Mercédès."
"I can drive any old car," I said, "but I'm ..."
"Wait there!" this girl, and ran out of the room.
For twenty minutes I and small talk with Miss Prendergast. They were the twenty minutes I have spent. I was in any case, but my position my so that, for all my to be polite, I my was distraught.
"You boy!" said Miss Mary Prendergast, totally a I was making Mr. Wilson's policy, "don't you go on talking to me! Sit on that chair and go to sleep! You look just beat!"
I sat and in the arm-chair.
Suddenly I was awake. Monica me. She from under her a cap and uniform.
"Put these on," she said, "and carefully. When you here, turn to the right and take the little you will on the right. Go to the bottom, go through the doors, and across the room you will there, to a door in a which leads to the entrance of the hotel. I will give you my to carry. I shall be waiting there. You will help me on with my and me to the car. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly."
"Now, pay attention once more, for I shall not be able to speak to you again. I shall have to give you your for the way to the Bendler-Strasse."
She did so and added:
"Drive carefully, you do. If we had a and the police intervened, it might be most for you."
"But your chauffeur," I said, "what will he do?"
"Oh, Carter," she answered carelessly, "he's to death ... he's American, you see ... he me out into the Tiergarten just now and took off his livery, then me here, off and home."
"But can you trust him?" I asked anxiously.
"Like myself," she said. "Besides, Carter's been to Belgium ... he Count Rachwitz, my husband, while he was on there. And Carter hasn't what he saw in Belgium!"
She gave me the key of the and how to put the car up. Carter would give me a at the and would me to the house early in the as if I were for the job of male for Gerry.
"I will go first," Monica said, "so as not to keep you waiting. My, but they're downstairs—all the at Olga Radolin's have got of the and the place is full of policemen. But there'll be no if you walk up to me in the and keep your away from the as much as possible."
She Miss Prendergast and away. What a pair of they were: so and resourceful: they to have of everything.
"Good night, Miss Prendergast," I said. "You have done me a good turn. I shall it!" And as the only means at my for my gratitude, I her hand.
She up like a girl.
"It's a long time since any one did that to a old woman like me," she said musingly. "Was it you or your brother," she asked abruptly, "who nearly my girl's heart?"
"I shouldn't like to say," I answered; "but I don't think, speaking personally, that Monica about me for me to guilty."
She contemptuously.
"If that is so," she said, "all I can say is that you to have all the of your family!"
With that I took my leave.
I the without meeting a soul. The place was with people, officers in uniform, with decorations, in dress, coachmen, footmen, chauffeurs, waiters. Everybody was talking sixteen to the dozen, and there were such of people that at I couldn't see Monica. Two were at the swing-doors leading into the street, and with them a who looked like a detective. I of Monica, almost at the detective's elbow, talking to two very elegant-looking officers. I pushed my way across the vestibule, my on the and her.
"Ah! there you are, Carter!" she said. "Gute Nacht, Herr Baron! Auf wiedersehen, Durchlaucht!"
The two officers her hand I helped her into her wrap. Then I out of the swing-doors in of her, looking neither to right to left, past the and the two policemen. The may have looked at me: if so, I didn't it. I had up my mind not to see him.
Outside Monica took the lead and me over to a chocolate-coloured up at the pavement. I noted with that the engine was stopped. That might I up. But a by the and started the engine I Monica into the car, and the next moment we were over the under the arc-lamps.
The Bendler-Strasse is off the Tiergarten, not from the Esplanade, and I my way there without much difficulty. I myself that Monica and I played our parts well, and I am sure nothing have been more professional than the way I helped her to alight. It was an house and she had the key of the door, so, after her safely doors, I returned to the car and it to the by a carriage-way leading to the of the premises.
As I the doors of the garage, a man came a the place leading to the upper room.
"Did it work all right, sir?" he asked.
"Is that Carter?" I said.
"Sure that's me," came the response. "Stand by now and we'll her in. Then I'll you where you are to sleep!"
We the car away and he took me to his quarters, a little room with electric light, a table with a red cloth, a open fire and two beds. The were with pictures cut from the American Sunday supplements, mostly and studies.
"It's a rough, mister," said Carter, "but it's the best I can do. Gee! but you look that dawg-gorn I you sleep anywheres!"
He was a fellow, pleasant-looking in an way, with a nose and eyes.
"Say, but I like to think of the way we them Deutschers," he chuckled. He on to himself I took off my and to undress.
"That there is your bed," he said, pointing; "the used to sleep there but they him for the army. There's a pair of Mr. Gerry's for you and you'll a cup of by the fire. It's all a rough, but it's the best we can do. I you want to go to sleep bad, so I'll be going down. The bed's clean... there are clean on it...."
"But I won't turn you out of your room," I said. "There are two beds. You must take yours."
"Don't you about me," he answered. "I'll make myself in the garage. I don't often see a in this dawg-gorn country, and when I do I know how to him."
He wouldn't to me, but off the stairs. As he I him to himself:
"Gee! but we surely those Deutschers some!"
I this fellow's cocoa; I myself at his fire. Then with a I into and into a and sleep.
