I GO ON WITH THE STORY
I was in the billiard-room of the Castle, a place, little used, for it of damp. A fire was in the grate, however, and on a table in the corner, which was with papers, a box.
Clubfoot a dinner-coat and, as he laughed, his white of shirt-front to the of his chest. For a moment, however, I had little of him or the ugly-looking Browning he in his fist. My ears were for any that might Francis' presence in the garden. But all as the grave.
Clubfoot, still audibly, walked over to me. I he was going to shoot me, he came so and so fast, but it was only to me and the door, me, as he did so, into the room.
The door by which he had entered open. Without taking his off me or his from its aim, he called out:
"Schmalz!"
A light step resounded, and the one-armed into the room. When he saw me, he stopped dead. Then he to circle me with a step, to himself: "So! So!"
"Good evening, Dr. Semlin!" he said in English. "Say, I'm to see you! Well, Okewood, dear old boy, here we are again. What? Herr Julius Zimmermann ..." and he into German, "es mich!"
I have killed him where he stood, though he was, for his in the American and English alone.
"Search him, Schmalz!" Clubfoot curtly.
Schmalz ran the of his one arm over my pockets, my portfolio on the billiard-table Clubfoot, and the other articles as they came to light ... my pistol, watch, cigarette-case and so ... on to a leather against the wall. In his search he me with his ... ugh, it was horrible!
Clubfoot had up the portfolio and it. He the out on the billiard-table and them carefully.
"Not there!" he said. "Run him upstairs, and we'll him," he ordered; "and let not our friend that I'm him with my little toy!"
Schmalz me by the collar, his into my neck, and me out of the room ... almost into the arms of Monica.
She and, turning, away the passage. Clubfoot laughed noisily, but I that in my present sorry plight, and unshaven, in clothes, along like a common pickpocket, my own mother would not have me.
There was a in the to which they me, where the two men me to the skin and over every single article of I possessed. Physically and mentally, I in my the of these two cripples. Of all my in Germany, I still look upon that as almost my ordeal.
Of course, they nothing, search as they might, and presently they my at me and me again, "for you and I, man," said Clubfoot, with his smile, "have got to have a little talk together!"
When I was once more clothed—
"You can us, Schmalz!" Clubfoot, "and send up the when I ring: he shall look after this Englishman we are at dinner with our hostess."
Schmalz out and left us alone. Clubfoot a cigar. He in for a minutes. I said nothing, for there was nothing for me to say. They hadn't got their document, and it was not likely they would it now. I that Francis in his might make an attempt to me, but I hoped, he did, he would think of the document in a place of safety. I was more or less to my fate. I was in their hands properly now, and they got the document or not, my was sealed.
"I will pay you the of saying, my dear Captain Okewood," Clubfoot in that voice of his which always my blood cold, "that in my career have I so much to any single individual, in the different cases I have handled, as I have to you. As an individual, you are a thing: it is your good that me as a of sorts.... I you it will me to be the of your of good luck. I don't mind telling you, as man to man, that I have not yet in my mind what to do with you now that I've got you!"
I my shoulders.
"You've got me, certainly," I replied, "but you would to have what I have not got."
"Let us not to be always with small mercies," answered the other, with a of his teeth,... "that is a of mine. As you remark, I would the ... the to the less and ... ... casket. But what I have, I hold. And I have you ... and your as well."
"I have no accomplice," I stoutly.
"Surely you our hostess, our most Countess? Was it not thanks to the she to take in your safety that I came here? Had it not been for that circumstance, I should have to upon her widowhood...."
"Her widowhood?" I exclaimed.
Clubfoot again.
"You cannot have the newspapers in your ... retreat, my dear Captain Okewood," he replied, "or surely you would have read the that Count Rachwitz, A.D.C. to Field-Marshal Mackensen, was killed by a that into the Brigade Head-quarters where he was at Predeal. Ah, yes," he sighed, "our Countess is now a widow, alone ..." he paused, then added, "... and unprotected!"
I his and cold with fear. Why, Monica was in this as much as I. Surely they wouldn't to touch her....
Clubfoot and me on the knee.
"You will be sensible, Okewood," he said confidentially. "You've lost. You can't save yourself. Your life was from the moment you the of his Majesty's private ... but you can save her."
I his hand off my leg.
"You won't me," I answered roughly. "You daren't touch the Countess Rachwitz, an American lady, of an American ambassador, married into one of your leading families ... no, Herr Doktor, you must try something else."
"Do you know why Schmalz is here?" he asked patiently, "and those soldiers?... You must have passed through the to come here. Your little friend is in arrest. She would be in (she doesn't know it), but that His Majesty was to put this on the Rachwitz family in their great affliction."
"The Countess Rachwitz has nothing to do with me," ... a lie, I to myself too late, as I was in her house.
But Clubfoot unperturbed.
"I shall take you into my confidence, my dear sir," he said, "to that I know you to be an untruth. The Countess, on the contrary, is, to use a phrase, in it up to the neck. Thanks to the of the Berlin police, I was not of your at the Bendler-Strasse, after they were called in by the American in the of your when asked to have your put in order. But we are systematic, we Germans; we are painstaking; and I set about going through every possible place that might you shelter.
"In the of my I came across our friend, Herr Kore. A of his very business-like me that on the day your from the Esplanade he had 3,600 marks from a E. 2 ... all names in his books were in cipher. Under the of my personality, Herr Kore told me all he knew; I my and then what the police had to tell me, namely, that on the date in question an American had a from the Countess Rachwitz's in the Bendler-Strasse. An ... Max or Otto, or some name like that ... anyhow, he was to Madame's brother, was able to in all the lacunae, and I was thus to up a very case against your well-meaning but ill-advised hostess. By this time the lady had left Berlin for this old-world seat, and I took to have her in I you down.
"You got away again. Even Jupiter nods, you know, my dear Captain Okewood, and I admit I the which you had in your possession. I must you also on your in us that false to Munich. It took me in to the that I an to you in that capital, but, for myself, I have a in these matters, and I you would sooner or later come to Bellevue. You will admit that I some perspicacity?"
"You're time with all this talk," I said sullenly.
Clubfoot a hand deprecatingly.
"I take a in my work," he half-apologetically. Then he added:
"You must not that your Countess is not an American. She is a German. She is also a widow. You may not know the relations that her and her late husband, but they were not, I you, of such that the Rachwitz family would her loss. Do you we a for all the American that left the States? My dear sir, I that you are still of the that into relations. In war, where the national is concerned, the is nothing. If he or she must be removed, puff! you the out. Afterwards you can always pay or apologize, or do what is required."
I in silence; I had no to offer in of this logic, the logic of the man.
Clubfoot produced a paper from his pocket.
"Read that!" he said, it over to me. "It is the for the Countess Rachwitz to appear a court-martial. Date blank, you see. You needn't tear it up ... I've got blank ... one for you, too!"
I my and my to water. I him his paper in silence. The of a dinner into the of the room. Clubfoot rose and the bell.
"Here's my offer, Okewood!" he said. "You shall that to me in its integrity, and the Countess Rachwitz shall go free provided she this country and not return. That's my last word! Take the night to sleep on it! I shall come for my answer in the morning."
A in field-grey with a and in the doorway.
"I make you for this man, Sergeant," said Clubfoot, "until I return in an hour or so. Food will be sent up for him and you will personally that no message is to him by that or any other means."
I had washed, I had my clothes, I had dined, and I sat in by the table, in the most of spirit, I think, into which it is possible for a man to fall. I was so totally by the of the that I don't think I much about my own at all. But my were with Monica. My life was my own, and I I had a on my brother's if our mission might be through to the end. But had I the right to Monica?
And then the happened. The door opened, and she came in, Schmalz her. He the with a word of to see that the the house were vigilant, and the man out, Monica and me alone.
The girl stopped the of self-reproach that rose to my with a gesture. She was pale, but she her as high as ever.
"Schmalz has me five minutes alone with you, Des," she said, "to with you for my life, that you may your trust. No, don't speak ... there is no time to waste in words. I have a message for you from Francis.... Yes, I have him here, this very night.... He says you must at all to keep Grundt from going to the shoot at ten o'clock to-morrow, and to him with you from ten to twelve. That is all I know about it.... But Francis has planned something, and you and I have got to trust him. Now, ... I shall tell Clubfoot I have with you and that you of weakening. Say nothing to-night, with him when he comes for his answer in the morning, and then send for him at a to ten, when he will be the house with the others. The I to you. Good night, Des, and up!"...
"But, Monica," I cried, "what about you?"
She under her pallor.
"Des," she happily, "we are now, we three. If all goes well, I'm with you and Francis!"
With that she was gone. A minutes after, a of soldiers with Schmalz and took me to a dark in the basement, where I was locked in for the night.
I was of the ... again I the old familiar smells, the of fresh earth, the of death; again I the the of tools, the low of our party; again I saw the very lights and the of the in their glare. Someone was me by the shoulder. It was my come to wake me.... I must have asleep. Was it stand-to so soon? I sat up and my and to the of another day.
The at the door, in the light.
"You are to come upstairs!" he said.
He took me to the billiard-room, where Clubfoot, and and shaved, sat at the writing-table in the sunshine, opening and coffee. A clock on a above his pointed to eight.
"You wish to speak to me, I believe," he said carelessly, his over a in his hand.
"You must give me a little more time, Herr Doktor," I said. "I was out last night and I not look at in their proper light. If you me a hours more...."
I put a touch of into my voice, which him at once.
"I am not unreasonable, my dear Captain Okewood," he replied, "but you will that I am not to be with, so I give you warning. I will give you until...."
"It is eight o'clock now," I interrupted. "I tell you what, give me until ten. Will that do?"
Clubfoot assent.
"Take this man to my bedroom," he ordered the sergeant. "Stay with him while he has his breakfast, and him here at ten o'clock. And tell Schmidt to my car at the door: he needn't wait, as he is to beat: I will drive myself to the shoot."
I don't what after that. I some breakfast, but I had no idea what I was eating, and the sergeant, who was a model of Prussian discipline, with a to enter into with me. My was very low: when I look upon that I think I must have been near the breaking-point.
As I sat and waited I the house in a of for the shoot. There was the of voices, of in the hall, of and in the without. Then the died away and all was still. Shortly afterwards, the clock pointing to ten, the me again to the billiard-room.
Grundt was still there. A of anger the blood into my as I looked at him, and soft and so at his victory. The of him, however, gave me the I needed. My nerve was badly, but I was it must answer to this last strain, to play this fish for two hours. After that ... if nothing ...
Clubfoot sent the away.
"I can look after him myself now," he said, in a that his of success. So the and left the room, his the passages like the of Destiny, relentless, inexorable.
