CHAPTER XVI
MY ROLE AS A CONSPIRATOR
Baron von Ringheim did not observe my profound consternation at hearingthat he had a bomb in his possession, and he appeared to regard it onlyas a useful thing to carry about in a dressing-bag. He was indeedengrossed by his own shrewdness in keeping it by him so as to preventits use at the wrong moment.
I believe that he interpreted my dismay rather as a tribute to hisadmirable caution. That I should object to have such a thing in myhouse did not occur to him.
For some moments I was at a loss what line to take. Of course I had toget possession of the bomb at any cost. If he were arrested and it wereto be found there, we should all find ourselves in prison and called onto face a charge involving heavy punishment.
"I have done you an injustice, Baron," I said, changing my tone for oneof profound admiration. "You are a wonderful leader."
He accepted this with something of a return to his former dignifiedbearing. "You have greatly wronged me, Herr Bastable," he said withdignity.
I played up to this at once. "For the future you will have no moredevoted follower than myself. I crave your pardon for my bluntness; butyou shall know the truth. I was told that you had ceased to lead themovement, and it was essential that I should satisfy myself. My life isat stake in this cause. But I shall doubt no more."
"Then you are with us?"
"With you, Baron, heart and soul. I raised my voice against it all atthe time; I protested against the shame of doubting you; I used everymeans in my power to convince the others. But all was in vain. Theyinsisted; and I was but one against all the rest."
He was as much bewildered at this as I had intended. "I don'tunderstand," he said.
I replied with a passionate harangue against the wickedness of anyattempt to undermine his authority, and talked until his poorhalf-crazed wits were in a whirl of perplexity. Then with dramaticearnestness I cried: "You have been shamefully betrayed and deceived."
"What do you mean?" he stammered.
"That," I exclaimed indignantly, pointing at the bag. "But I will seethat all is made right. The bomb you have there is a sham, a fraud, atrick. The real one is in the hands of those who mean to use it whenand how they please. Your counsels of humanity have been set at naught,and the lives of hundreds are in peril."
"It is impossible," he protested weakly.
"Show it to me and I will prove my words; aye, and do more than that. Iwill see that the real one is placed in your possession."
The look he cast at me was almost piteous in its appealing trustfulness;and after a second's pause, he unfastened the bag, and with fingerswhich trembled so violently that I feared he would drop it, he handed methe bomb.
That I took it with intense relief may well be imagined, and I handledit with the utmost caution and no little dread. Whether it was reallythe terrible engine of destruction that he believed, I did not know; butwith an assumption of confidence I was very far from feeling, I pointedto some mark on it. "I knew it," I cried. "See that. The proof of thebetrayal; shame! shame!" and with that I slipped it into a large innerpocket of my jacket.
"What are you going to do?" he asked as I turned to the door.
"I am on fire until this has been righted. When I return I shall havesomething to tell you. From this moment you, and you only, are myleader."
He was going to protest, but I gave him no time. My one thought was toget rid of the thing at once. But how to do so perplexed me sorely.
I was consumedly uncomfortable and intensely scared. I felt that my lifewas in danger every second the confounded thing was in my possession.Every time it moved ever so slightly as I walked I feared that it wouldexplode, and I drew my first deep breath of relief the instant I was outof the house.
But the streets had even more potential terrors. When any one approachedme on the side where I was carrying it, I was afraid they would knockagainst it and blow me and half Berlin with me into eternity.
Every policeman I met was an object of dread; and when one turned togaze after me, I jumped to the conclusion that he knew what I wascarrying and was about to arrest me.
I left the house with no definite purpose or plan for getting rid of it,and I walked on at first aimlessly, wondering vaguely whether I shouldhide it or bury it somewhere without being observed.
With this thought I made for the Thiergarten, and I had reached the westend of Unter den Linden when it occurred to me that the best andsimplest course would be to drop it over the Marschall Bridge into theriver.
I walked down North Wilhelmsstrasse with much the sort of feeling athief might have who had the proceeds of his theft upon him and knewthat the police were close on his track. Every harmless citizen I metbecame a detective, told off especially to watch me; and when I reachedthe bridge and loitered along, gazing enviously at the water below andwaiting for a chance to drop the thing over unseen, I was convinced thateverybody there could tell from my manner that I was intent upon thecommission of some ill deed and had slackened their pace to watch me.
My fingers trembled so violently as I held it in readiness that I wonderI did not drop it on the pavement; and when a chance did come at last,and I was alone close to the middle of the bridge and took it out of mypocket, glancing furtively all round me the while, the perspirationstood in great beads on my forehead.
At the last moment even I had a horrible and almost paralysing fear thatwhen dropped from such a height it might be exploded by contact with thewater; and when at last I did succeed in letting it go, I watched itsfall with bated breath and a sort of dread that the end of all thingsfor me was at hand.
But it disappeared from sight and nothing happened, and I drew one deep,deep breath of fierce exultant joy, and then leaned against the parapetwith the helpless inertness of a drunken man.
It was some time before I could rally myself sufficiently to set aboutfinding something which I could take back with me to the Baron as thereal bomb. How to manage this puzzled me not a little.
I searched the shop windows for some kind of hollow metal ball; myintention being to fill it with shot and other things so as to be ofabout the same weight as the thing I had thrown into the river. Ihunted in vain for this until a man in an ironmonger's shop suggested aball-cock.
I had invented a little story about wanting it for some privatetheatricals. He was an ingenious fellow and became quite interested inhelping me. He hunted up one of the size I wished, filed off the longhandle, drilled a hole and stuffed in some cotton waste and enough shotto give it the required weight, and succeeded in making up a verypassable counterfeit of an actual bomb.
At a gunsmith's I bought some blank revolver cartridges for the Baron'srevolver, in case he should object to hand that over to me; and thusprepared I turned homewards very much easier in mind.
Close to the house I met Herr Feldermann, and he stopped me. "I havejust come from your house, Herr Bastable--about the Ziegler murder, youknow."
"Have you found the men, then?" I asked as unconcernedly as I could.
"Not yet; but of course we shall find them. We have such a closedescription."
"I shall certainly know them again."
"There is a somewhat curious thing about it," he said slowly, and thenwith a sudden penetrating glance: "Have you ever seen the Baron vonRingheim?"
There was nothing for it but a lie, so I lied. "No. You don't mean thathe has anything to do with this?"
"Dormund swears that your description fits him like a glove."
I managed to smile. "Isn't the Baron something of a red rag to Dormund?He gave me that impression that day at the station."
"There's something in that, perhaps. But he's a very shrewd fellow.You don't think there's anything in the idea, then?"
"My dear Feldermann, how on earth should I know? If I had seen him Icould tell in a second."
"His daughter is with your sister; do you happen to know if the fatheris r
eally in Berlin?"
"I can ask her if you like."
"Of course if you find out anything about his movements you'll tell us?"
"Of course. It would make a rattling good newspaper story, wouldn't it?By the way, I suppose you'll want my evidence. Don't bother me unlessit's necessary."
"I came to tell you that we shall not have to trouble you yet, andperhaps not at all if you can help us in the way I've suggested. And Ithink you'll be able to, if you wish."
With this uncomfortably suggestive hint he left me.
Did he know already that the Baron was with me? One never could get tothe bottom of his thoughts. If he did know anything, why had he notarrested the man whom the description appeared to fit so exactly?
Ah well, it was no use to seek trouble. Plenty of complications werecoming my way unsought. I was fast getting into the mood of a fatalist.If everything was destined to go smash, smash it would go; and nothing Icould do could prevent it.
As soon as I reached home I had a long interview with the Baron. It wasvery much of a burlesque. I made up a story about the manner in which Ihad secured the deadly bomb which I placed in his hands; succeeded insubstituting blank cartridges for those in his weapon; and, what was ofeven more importance, got from him the particulars of the contemplateddestruction of the war-ship.
This was after I had thoroughly convinced him that I was heart and handin the cause of which he believed himself to be the leader, and had toldhim that Althea should be taken fully into our confidence.
I saw her alone first, however, and gave her an account of all that hadpassed. She was deeply moved by the story.
"They are merely making a tool of him, Mr. Bastable; and they must havegiven him that awful thing because they were afraid of the results tothemselves should it be discovered in their possession. My poorfather!"
"If you will take the line I have already taken with him, I think it maybe possible to stop any further mischief at least," I said. "But hemust be made to feel that unless he trusts to me he can do nothing. Thenwe can see about getting him away from the city."
"But the danger to you. We have no right to place you in such aposition. I intended to take him away somewhere to-day."
"Bessie told me something about that. But it is impracticable. You hadbetter remain here. You forget that you promised Herr Feldermann to lethim know wherever you were," I reminded her.
"What can we do then?"
"I am still confident that all will come right if we can only get timeenough. And time we must have at any risk and cost."
"There is always one way open," she said hesitatingly. "At least Ipresume so. Do you think if I were to agree to do what Herr von Felsenrequires, that he could still obtain my father's pardon?"
"Would you do it, if I did think so?"
"What else can I do?" she cried distractedly.
"For one thing--keep a stout heart and have patience. I do not pretendthat your father's arrival here and his visit to the Jew's house has notseriously complicated matters; but you may still have a little grain oftrust in me."
"As if I had not! But the thought of the danger you are----" She brokeoff as if she had been about to say something that might have beenembarrassing. "Of course I trust you," she added after the pause.
"That is all I ask--at present, at all events, until that last resourceyou spoke of need no longer be contemplated. And now, let us have thistalk with your father."
She put out her hand impulsively, and as I pressed it our eyes met. Noother word was spoken, but I think she understood much of what I shouldhave said had not my lips been sealed.
The interview with the Baron was a curious mixture of pathos andburlesque. The pain which I could see Althea was suffering cut me tothe quick, and I sought to shorten the conversation as much as possible.But her father was so full of his own importance, so talkative about hiswrongs, so insistent upon my complete obedience to his orders, soobviously unable to take a rational view of any part of the subject, andso incapable of understanding the risks and dangers of the position,that it was a long time before we could drive it home upon him that theonly hope of success lay in his leaving everything to me.
"But your very presence in Berlin is a danger," said Althea more thanonce when we were attempting to persuade him to leave the city.
"No one knows of it, child. And I have not done anything if they did.Beside, would you have me, the leader of the whole movement, shirk thedanger now that the hour has come?"
"It may get to be known that you were at Herr Ziegler's house lastnight."
"I went to prevent violence, child. That is surely no crime."
"And you are placing Herr Bastable in danger by remaining here."
"Is it not his duty to run risks in the cause? Is he to be the only manto venture nothing for our country? Danger, indeed," he criedindignantly. "Have we not all suffered? What of my own sufferings?"and he was off again on his favourite topic when I interrupted him.
"Have you any commands in regard to the forthcoming attack?"
"Ah, that will be a stroke; and it is my own conception"; and as thewind will turn a straw, he went off to the fresh subject and spoke atlength about it.
It appeared that a new cruiser, the _Wundervoll_, had just beenlaunched; and the intention was to wreck her as she lay waiting to betaken to be fitted up. The bomb which, thank Heaven, lay at the bottomof the Spree was to do the mischief, and the exact details of the planas to time and means were to be discussed and settled at a forthcomingmeeting of some of the more reckless men of the party.
A very little ingenuity succeeded in extracting from him the place ofthe meeting--a house on the riverside which had been taken by them,ostensibly for some business purposes. But the time of the meeting hedid not appear to know.
"I shall learn that in due course. They cannot move without me; for Itrust no one but myself with the means. But it will not be yet for somedays."
"Do you mean then, father, that some one else knows you are here?" askedAlthea in a tone of alarm, with a glance in my direction.
"Could I lead them without their being able to communicate with me? Youare foolish, Althea. Did they not prepare this shelter for me?"
"Oh, it is terrible," she murmured with a deep sigh.
"It will be glorious, you should say rather, child," he replied, with awild look in his eyes. "The greatest blow which we have yet been ableto strike at the oppressors of our country!"
"I will go and see what is doing," I put in as I rose. "I will report toyou the results of my inquiries, and you will of course do nothingwithout first hearing them, and without my aid. You would not rob me ofmy share in the coming victory?"
"Bring me word instantly," he said in a tone of sharp command. "And Iwish to see Sudermann and Bolinsk to consult with them. See them andbring them here to me at once."
"It would not be safe for them to be seen coming here. My house is toowell known for them to take such a risk."
"See them then and tell them---- Wait, I will write you a letter." Heturned aside and wrote rapidly, and in the meantime Althea looked at mewith an expression of such pain and concern that I was almost ashamed ofthe deception I was practising.
"Here is the note. 'The bearer, Herr Bastable, has my fullestconfidence and knows my wishes. Consult with him freely.' That willsatisfy them, if they should have any doubt about speaking frankly toyou."
"Oh, but they will not," I answered confidently; and with that I leftthe room.
As I went downstairs I was about to tear up the letter, when it occurredto me as a possibility that it might be of use in any future case ofemergency, so I put it carefully away.
Then I set to work to think out some means of inducing the Baron toleave Berlin, by using my supposed influence in the party. If I couldtell him a plausible story to the effect that the attempt had had to bepostponed for a few weeks and that the authorities had got wind of it,he might go. And for Althea's sake, as well as for our own,
I wasintensely anxious to get him away.
As I sat planning this a letter was brought to me from Herr Borsen.
"MY DEAR BASTABLE,--
"Can you come and see me? I understand that you have another visitor inyour house, and it is about that I should like a few words with you. Iwish to be able to contradict a strange report which has reached meconcerning him; since, if uncontradictcd, it might be a somewhat seriousmatter for you. Any time to-morrow will do, but not later.
"Yours as ever."
If I had been wishful for the Baron to go before, the letter turned thewish into a strenuous anxiety.
It looked very much like the beginning of the end.