WE HAVE A RECKONING WITH CLUBFOOT
I looked at Clubfoot.
I must play him with caution, with method, too.
Only by acting on a most exact I to him in that room for two hours. I had four points to argue with him and I would an hour to each of them by the clock on the above his head. If only I keep him in his victory, I might to prevent him out that I was playing with him ... but two hours is a long time ... it would be a near thing.
One point in my ... my manner gave him the of success from the start. There was nothing about my of humility, for in truth I was very near despair. I was making this last at the of my brother, but I it to be a hope: in my of I I was and out.
So I to the point and told Clubfoot that I was beaten, that he should have his paper. But there were about the of of the bargain. We had one another. What we that would give each of us the of play?
Clubfoot settled this point in fashion. He his good elaborately, but the of his was that he the cards and that, consequently, it was he who must be trusted, I the guarantee.
Whilst we were this point the clock the half-hour.
I the to Monica. I was not at all about myself, I said, but I must sure in my mind that no should her. To this Clubfoot that I might set my mind at ease: the moment the document was in his hands he would give orders for her release: I should be there and might see it done myself.
What was there, I asked, that she would not be she the frontier?
Clubfoot was a little restless. With his on the clock but in a voice he again that his word was the he offer.
We this too. My manner was and nervous, I know, and I think he playing with me. I told him that his his of good faith. At this he laughed and that this was possibly the case.
"Nevertheless, it is I who give the guarantee," he said in a that no contradiction.
The clock eleven.
One hour to go!
"Come, Okewood," he added good-naturedly, "we waste time. Up to this you've had all the sport, you know. You wouldn't have me miss the day's I've had this year. Where have you got this of ours?"
He was an man. To him address me, you would have that he was sending me to my death. He appeared to have this detail. It meant so little to him that he had.
I to my third point. He very hard for me, I said, but I was the and must give way. The trouble was that the document was still in two and neither was here.
"You where the are hidden," said Clubfoot promptly. "I will you to the hiding-places and you will hand them to me."
"But they are near here," I replied.
"Then where are they?" answered Clubfoot impatiently. "Come, I am waiting and it's late!"
"It will take days to portions," I unwillingly.
"That not matter," the other; "there is no particular ... now!"
And he grimly.
I not my to the clock, for I the German's on me. An told me that his had been by my reluctance. I was very nearly at the end of my resources.
Would the clock strike?
"I tell you frankly, Herr Doktor," I said in a voice that with anxiety, "I cannot the Countess we travel together to the hiding-places of the document. I only sure of her safety she is near me...."
Clubfoot his at me.
"What do you then?" he said very sternly.
"You go and the two at the places I indicate," I out, "and ... and ..."
A and the out twice.
Half an hour more!
How still the house was! I the clock ticking—no, that must be my heart. My failed me, my mind had a blank, my was with fear.
"I've an hour and a over you, man," said Clubfoot suddenly, "and it's time that this was to a close. I you again that I am not to be with. The is perfectly clear: it rests with you the Countess Rachwitz goes free or is court-martialled this at Cleves and this evening. Your is absurd. I'll be with you. We will here. I will wire for the two of the to be at the places you indicate, and as soon as I the entire in my hands the Countess will be to the frontier. I will allow her here to her and he can return and you that she is in safety."
He out his hand and a of him.
"Where shall we the two halves?" he said.
"One is in Holland," I murmured.
He looked up quickly.
"If you to play me false...."
He off when he saw my face.
The room was going with me. My hands cold as ice. I was for the over myself, but I my swaying.
"Ah!" Clubfoot musingly, "that would be Semlin's half.... I might have known.... Well, mind, Schmalz can take my car and it. He can be by to-morrow. Where is he to go?"
"The other is in Berlin," I said desperately. My voice to me like a third person speaking.
"That's simpler," Clubfoot. "Ten minutes to twelve now ... if I wire at once, that should be here by midnight.... I'll the message off immediately...."
He looked up at me, pencil in hand.
It was the end. I had with Francis to the limit of my powers, but now my was broken. He had failed me ... not me, but Monica, rather.... I not save her now. Like some film, the hours of the past past my eyes, a of figures—Semlin with his and face, Schratt with her hands, the Jew Kore, Haase with his head, Francis, sadly on the café ... and Monica, all in white, as I saw her that night at the Esplanade ... my always came to her, a white and in some at a of rifles....
"I am waiting!"
Clubfoot's voice upon the silence.
Should I tell him the truth now?
It was three minutes to the hour.
"Come! The two addresses!"
I would keep to the last.
"Herr Doktor!" I faltered.
He the pencil on the table and to his feet. He me by the of my and me in an iron grip.
"The addresses, you dog!" he said.
The clock faintly. There was a at the door.
"Come in!" Clubfoot and his seat.
The clock was twelve.
An officer in and saluted.
It was Francis!... Francis, shaved, his trimmed, a in his eye, in a overcoat, one white-gloved hand in to his helmet.
"Hauptmann Salzmann!" ... he himself, his and to Clubfoot, who at him, at the interruption. He spoke with the clipped, of the Prussian officer. "I am looking for Herr Leutnant Schmalz," he said.
"He is not in," answered Clubfoot in a voice. "He is out and I am ... I do not wish to be disturbed."
"As Schmalz is out," the officer returned suavely, to the desk, "I must trouble you for an instant, I fear. I have been sent over from Goch to the here. But I no ... there is not a man in the place."
Clubfoot his from his chair.
"Gott im Himmel!" he savagely. "It is that I can be left in peace. What the has the got to do with me? Will you that I have nothing to do with the guard! There is a ... him for a lazy ... I'll ring ..."
He the sentence. As he his on my to the in the wall, Francis on him from behind, his in an iron and his at the same moment into that of back.
The German, taken by surprise, over backwards, my on top of him.
It was so done that, for the instant, I was dumbfounded.
"Quick, Des, the door!" my gasped. "Lock the door!"
The big German was like a and under my brother's fingers, his a on the floor. In his Clubfoot's left arm had been under him and was now to the ground by his great weight. With his free right arm he to off my brother's as Francis to a on the man's and him into silence.
I to the door. The key was on the and I it in a trice. As I to go to my brother's help my of the of my pistol where Schmalz had it the under my overcoat on the leather lounge.
I up the and by my brother's side, Clubfoot's right arm to the ground. I the pistol in his face.
"Stop that noise!" I commanded.
The German obeyed.
"Better search him, Francis," I said to my brother. "He has a Browning on him somewhere."
Francis through the man's pockets, up and each article as it came to light on the above him. From an pocket he the Browning. He at it: the magazine was full with a in the breech.
"Hadn't we him up?" Francis said to me.
"No," I said. I was still on the German's arm. He exhausted. His had upon the ground.
"Let me up, you!" he choked.
"No!" I said again and Francis and looked at me.
Each of us what was in the other's mind, my and I. We were of a hand-clasp we had on the banks of the Rhine.
I was about to speak but Francis me. He was all over. I his where it touched mine.
"No, Des, ..." he pleaded, "let me ... this is my show...."
Then, in a voice that with passion, he spoke to Clubfoot.
"Take a good look at me, Grundt," he said sternly. "You don't know me, do you? I am Francis Okewood, of the man who has you to your fall. You don't know me, but you some of my friends, I think. Jack Tracy? Do you him? And Herbert Arbuthnot? Ah, you him, too. And Philip Brewster? You him as well, do you? No need to ask you what to Philip!"
The man on the answered nothing, but I saw the colour very slowly from his cheeks.
My spoke again.
"There were four of us after that letter, as you knew, Grundt, and three of us are dead. But you got me. I was the fourth man, the unknown quantity in all your calculations ... and it to me I your ... I and this of mine ... an at the game, Grundt!"
Still Clubfoot was silent, but I noticed a of on his forehead, then his and to the floor.
Francis in the same deep, voice.
"I I should have to my hands by the world of a man like you, Grundt, but it has come to it and you have to die. I'd have killed you in blood when I came in but for Jack and Herbert and the others ... for their you had to know who is your executioner."
My the pistol. As he did so the man on the floor, by a of strength, rose to his knees, me headlong. Then there was a of close to my as I on the floor, a report, a and a gurgle.
Something a little on the ground and then still.
We rose to our together.
"Des," said my unsteadily, "it like murder."
"No, Francis," I back, "it was justice!"
