veryslowly drew it out and handed it to him.
Without opening the envelope he placed it in his pocket. Then takingher hand, he looked long and earnestly into her face and said:
"You had better return to the Palace at once, Lola. You are not well.Leave me to settle matters with Ghelardi."
"But he will tell the King!" she gasped, wringing her hands in despair."What can I say--how shall I explain?"
"Leave all to me," he urged. "But before you go, tell me one thing.Why is Henri Pujalet in Rome?"
"No, no!" she shrieked, "do not mention his name. I--ah! no--do nottorture me, I beg of you!" she went on wildly. "Hate me--denounce me asa spy, if you will--revile my memory if you wish--but do not taunt mewith the name of that man."
"I will see you to your carriage. Come," he urged simply.
She struggled to calm herself, placing her gloved hand upon her beatingheart, while the Englishman laid his hand tenderly upon her shoulder indeepest sympathy.
At first he had been horrified at discovering the bitter, amazing truth.But horror had now been succeeded by poignant regret and adetermination to suppress, if possible, what must be, if divulged byGhelardi, as no doubt it would--a most terrible national scandal.
While they were standing together, a Colonel of Artillery and two ladiesentered, the former showing them the private cabinet of the head of theWar Department. The women recognised the Princess by the decoration shewore at the edge of her bodice, and bowed low and awkwardly before heras she passed out, followed by Hubert.
With hurried steps he conducted her to the main entrance, and at oncesent a servant for one of the royal automobiles, saying that Her RoyalHighness was not well.
Together they waited in an ante-room almost without speaking. Sheseemed too nervous and overwrought.
"I trust you, Mr Waldron," she said suddenly, looking up into his face."Yet--ah! what can you think of me! How you must scorn and despise me!But--but I hope you will not misjudge me--that--you will makeallowances for me--a girl--a very foolish girl?"
"Do not let us discuss that now," he hastened to reply in a low, hardvoice, for he never knew until that moment how mad was his affection forher.
And just then one of the royal flunkeys entered, bowing, to announcethat the car was awaiting Her Royal Highness.
Their hands clasped in silence, and she walked out through a line ofobsequious servants and down the flight of steps to the royal car.
As she went out a waiter stood behind the line of soldiers drawn up inthe great vestibule, watching intently. Unobserved he had followed thepair when they had emerged from His Excellency's private cabinet, andhis shrewd eyes had noticed something amiss.
He was the same man who had passed Hubert earlier in the evening andwhose face had so puzzled him.
The Englishman, after the royal car had driven away, turned and made hisway back in search of Ghelardi.
The discovery held him utterly confounded. What secret was contained inthat envelope she had stolen? Why had she a key to the Minister's safe?
As he walked back, his mind tortured by a thousand strange thoughts andcurious theories, the mysterious waiter followed him at a respectabledistance, watching.
Hubert was wondering what had become of Pucci whom he ordered to be nearhim, and whom he had not seen the whole evening.
He gained the door of His Excellency's room just as the Chief of SecretPolice returned along the corridor.
"I have been endeavouring to discover His Excellency, but,unfortunately, I cannot find him anywhere," the old man said. "We willopen the safe and see what has been taken. It is utterly astounding tome that the Princess Luisa should be revealed as a spy."
"I do not think we should condemn her yet," urged Waldron. "There maybe some explanation."
"Explanation! What explanation can there be of a woman who takesadvantage of a reception, when the sentries are relaxed, to creep uphere, open the safe with a false key, and abstract documents."
"I cannot see the motive," declared Waldron.
"Ah! but I do. I and my agents have been watching for weeks," hereplied, and crossing to the safe he placed the key in the lock andagain opened it.
Many formidable bundles of documents were disclosed, lying within,together with the thin envelope with which Lola had replaced the one shehad taken.
Waldon took it up and turned it over with curiosity. Then, deliberatelytearing it open, he pulled out its contents.
It was, he found to his dismay, only a blank piece of tracing paper!
"Ah! that is what she has placed here, after taking out a similarenvelope, I suppose," snapped the keen-eyed old man, grasping thesituation in a moment. "I have suspected this all along--ever sincethose fortress plans so mysteriously disappeared. And now she has takenanother document. I was foolish to allow her to leave with you."
"The document--or whatever it is--is in my safe keeping."
"You have it!" he cried quickly. "Please hand it to me."
"I shall do no such thing, Commendatore," was Hubert's defiant reply.
"It is a secret of State, and you, as a foreigner, have no right to itspossession!"
"It has been given to me for safety, and I shall hand it over to HisMajesty, and to him alone."
"Signor Waldron, I demand it," the old man said angrily, raising hisvoice as he flung the safe door to with a clang and re-locked it. "Idemand it--in the name of His Majesty!"
"And I refuse."
"You defy me then?"
"Yes, I defy you, signore," he replied firmly, his dark eyes fixed uponthose of the crafty official.
"You are Her Highness's lover. When the King is made aware of that facthe will show you little graciousness, I assure you," said Ghelardi witha dry laugh.
"But you will remain silent upon that point, just as you will remainsilent regarding what we have discovered to-night," the Englishman saidslowly. "No scandal must attach to the Princess's name, remember."
"Of course you wish to shield her--for your own ends. She is the spyfor whom we have been searching all these weeks. It is she who placedin the hands of the our enemies the truth concerning the newfortifications along the northern frontier."
"I refuse to discuss that point," replied Hubert very coldly, butfirmly. "One thing alone I demand of you, and that is silence--silencemost absolute and profound."
"It is my duty to inform the King of the whole circumstances."
"True, it may be your duty, but it is one that you will not perform,Signor Ghelardi. Think of the terrible scandal throughout Europe if thePress got wind of it! And they must do--if you report officially, andit comes to the ears of His Excellency the Minister. The latter hatesthe Princess, because she accidentally snubbed the Countess Cioni at theball at the Palazzo Ginori last week."
"That is no affair of mine. Women's jealousies do not concern me in theleast. I am charged with the safety of the State against foreignespionage."
"Well--in this case you've discovered the truth accidentally," respondedthe diplomat, "and having done so, if you respect your Sovereign and hisfamily, you will say nothing. Further, we may, if we remain silent, beable to obtain more information from Her Highness as to the identity ofthe person into whose hands the plans fell."
"She abstracted them, without a doubt, for she had this duplicate key ofthe safe," the old man declared.
"You will say nothing, I command you."
"You! How can you impose silence upon me, pray?" he demanded fiercely."You are a foreigner, and you are holding a State secret."
"I shall hold it at present for safe keeping."
"Then I shall go straight to the King and lay the whole matter beforehim."
"You threatened to do a similar action before," said the other veryquietly. "I repeat my warning--that silence is best."
"Then I tell you frankly that I refuse to heed your warning. It is myduty to my Sovereign to tell him the truth."
"Very well--go to him and tell him--at your own peril."
<
br /> "Peril!" he echoed. "What peril?"
"The peril at which I have already hinted, Signor Ghelardi," he answeredin a low, hard voice. "Do you wish me to be more explicit? Well--thereis in a village called Wroxham, in Norfolk, a mystery--the murder of aman named Arthur Benyon, a British naval officer--which has never yetbeen cleared up. One man can clear it up--an eyewitness who is,fortunately, still alive and who knows you. And if it is cleared up,then you, Luigi Ghelardi--who at the time occupied the office of Chiefof the German Secret Service, and was directing the operation of thehorde of spies who are still infesting East Anglia, will be confrontedwith certain very awkward questions."
The old man's face went livid. He started at Waldron's words, and hisbony fingers clenched themselves into the palms.
"Shall I say more?" asked the Englishman, after a brief pause, his eyesfixed upon the crafty chief of spies. "Shall I explain how ArthurBenyon, an agent of the British Intelligence Department, was attackedone summer night after sailing on the Norfolk Broads, being shot in coldblood, and his body flung into the river--how the revolver was thrown inafter him, and how, half an hour later, a man, dusty and breathless,gained a car that had been waiting for him and drove through the nightup to London. And the fugitive was yourself--Luigi Ghelardi!"
He paused.
"And shall I describe the hue and cry raised by the police: how at theinquest a man named James, employed on a wherry, made a queer statementthat was not believed, and how you left London next day and returned toGermany? Shall I also describe to you what the eyewitness saw--and--"
"No!" cried the man hoarsely. "Enough! enough!"
"Then give me that safe key and remain silent. If not, I shall also domy duty and explain to the King those circumstances to which I have justreferred."
Ghelardi reluctantly drew the key from his pocket, and having handed itto the Englishman, passed to the door in silence, staring in horror atthe man who had so unexpectedly levelled such a terrible accusationagainst him.
He knew that Hubert Waldron held all the honours in that game. In hiseyes showed a wild, murderous look.
Yes, he would treat the man before him as he had treated the Englishman,Benyon--seal his lips as he had sealed his own--if only he dared!
But Hubert Waldron, his hand upon the hilt of his uniform-sword, onlybowed as the other slowly passed out. He knew now the reason why thosetwo men, Merlo and Fiola, had been bribed to encompass his end.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
REVEALS THE BONDAGE.
On his return home Hubert sat at his table, and very carefully brokeopen the stolen envelope.
To his surprise, he found that it merely contained several pieces oftracing linen upon which were many lines, angles, and numbers, all ofwhich were quite unintelligible.
There were four small sheets, each about twelve inches square and as faras he could make out, they related to certain plans--or else they wereplans in themselves. The scale seemed very small; therefore, after along examination, he came to the conclusion that they must form the keyto other plans, and had been reduced purposely, so that they could notbe used without considerable preparation.
If they formed a key, this, no doubt, would be done in order that noimproper use might be made of them.
The four pieces of tracing linen were practically covered withcabalistic signs and numbers, short lines, long lines, and all sorts ofcarefully ruled angles at various degrees. Yet there was nothingwhatever upon them to show what they were.
There, during the night, beneath his shaded reading-lamp he strove topuzzle out their import.
Upon one he discovered that the various calculations appeared to beheights in metres and centimetres, and certainly in another weremeasurements concerning reinforced concrete.
Suddenly a startling thought flashed across his mind. The plans of thenew fortresses on the Austrian frontier had been stolen, but as far ashe could gather no use had been made of them. True, the army ofAustria-Hungary had been mobilised and was held in secret, hourly readyfor attack. Yet no formal representations had been made from the ViennaForeign Office to Rome, and all inquiries had failed to establish thatthe reason of the secret mobilisation was actually due to the allegedact of war on the part of Italy.
Was it possible, therefore, that the plans stolen were worthless andconveyed nothing without that neatly executed key which lay spread onthe blotting-pad before him? Would Her Highness, when she met him nextday, reveal to him the truth?
For the present he had imposed silence upon his enemy, the crafty oldGhelardi. But how long would that last--how long before Italy, andindeed the whole of Europe, rang with the terrible scandal of a RoyalHouse!
That night he locked away the envelope with its precious contents safelyin his steel dispatch-box and still in his clothes, cast himself uponthe bed to sleep. But it was already nearly five in the morning, and hefailed even to close his eyes.
The discovery of Lola's treachery had utterly bewildered and unnervedhim. Surely she could not want money--and the temptation of money alonemakes the traitor. He loved her still. Yes, after that first revulsionof feeling at the moment when he had caught her in the very act it hadbecome more than ever impressed upon him that by her sweetness andbeauty she held him in her toils--that he loved her with a mad, profoundpassion, a deep and tender love, such as he had never beforeexperienced, not even in the case of that brilliant-eyed Andalusian whohad been so near dragging him down to his ruin.
Ay, he loved her, even though the bitter truth how stood revealed in allits naked hideousness. Yet, alas! he could not tell her of his love.No. He dare not! Between them there existed a wide barrier of birththat was of necessity unsurmountable. She, a princess of theblood-royal, could never be permitted to marry a mere diplomat, any morethan she could marry the man to whom she had given her heart, HenriPujalet.
Thoughts of the latter brought reflections that he was in Rome. Thatfact was very curious, to say the least.
Had not the Frenchman urged him to keep his presence a secret from Lola?Why? He had, he said, arranged to meet her.
Feelings of the most intense jealousy and hatred arose within Hubert'sheart, for did he not remember that passionate love-scene he hadwitnessed beneath the palms in far-off Wady Haifa.
At nine o'clock the telephone bell rang, and he replied to it.
It was Renata, Lola's maid, who explained that Her Highness would beunable to go out to Frascati, but would call upon him at noon--anappointment which he eagerly confirmed.
Just before eleven Waldron called upon General Cataldi and was shown atonce into the Minister's private room.
Without much preliminary he said in Italian:
"I am anxious to know whether another document of very great importancehas disappeared from Your Excellency's safe?"
The General looked at him keenly, in wonder at his meaning.
"I confess I scarcely follow you," he replied.
"Well, I have suspicion that, during the reception last night anothervaluable confidential document was abstracted--an envelope containingseveral sheets of tracing linen."
His Excellency, quickly taking the safe key attached to his watch-chain,rose eagerly and opened the big steel door.
"Yes," he gasped, turning pale, "it's gone! What do you know about it,signore?"
"No," laughed the Englishman; "this is not quite so serious, for thoughit was actually stolen last night I already have it safe in mypossession."
"You!"
"Yes. I recovered it. But first please tell me to what the tracingrefers."
"Why, to the plans of our new fortresses along the Austrian frontier,"was his prompt reply. "I doubt if they would be understood without thatkey. Pironti declares they would be valueless."
"Then the same person who stole the key would have stolen the originalplans--eh?"
"Without a doubt. Who was the thief? You know, signore! I can tell itfrom your face."
"True, I do know, but at present Your Excell
ency must excuse me if Iremain silent. I hope in His Majesty's interest--indeed in the interestof the Italian nation to be able to avoid a scandal."
"But surely you can tell me in confidence. Signor Waldron," the Generalprotested. "The plans disappeared and I know from my own personalobservations that His Majesty held me in suspicion, as responsible fortheir safe keeping."
"No suspicion can further attach to you, General Cataldi," theEnglishman assured him, "nor to your secretary. But I have called toascertain exactly the nature of the key plans."
"I am much relieved if suspicion has been lifted from my shoulders,signore," was the General's reply. "I know that both you and ourfriend, the Commendatore Ghelardi suspected that someone in the Ministryhad connived at this act of espionage."
"The theft has been committed by a person outside the Ministry."
"Who--do tell me who, signore," he cried eagerly.
"Not at present. I can say nothing. I am only here to obtain furtherinformation, so that I may make a complete report to His Majesty andexplain of what assistance Your Excellency has been to me."
The General--the man who had accepted bribes from every quarter--hesitated for a few seconds. This man whom he had hitherto regarded ashis enemy was, he thought, evidently his friend, after all!
"The tracings of the key were purposely upon a smaller scale, so thatthey would have to be enlarged by photography, or re-drawn, to be of anyuse," he said. "Three days ago they were examined by the Committee ofNational Defence in