CHAPTER XXV
AN UNEXPECTED HONOUR
The question was asked a great deal easier than it could be answered.Only Lechmere smiled.
"I fancy I could give a pretty shrewd guess," he said. "The countess hasbeen inspired by a discovery that she has made to-night, and a double ofthe king might prove very useful under certain circumstances. And inspite of what this young lady says as to the way she baffled the hiredspy in the lane, I fancy the countess has an inkling of the truth. Wehave pretty well established the fact that the king started out thisafternoon with certain papers in his pocket."
"Probably an abdication of his throne in the interests of Russia,"Maxwell said.
"Precisely. He was hesitating as to whether he should sign or not. Hegoes to some gambling hell and gets exceedingly intoxicated there. Theidea was probably to force a signature out of him as soon as he was in afit state to hold a pen. Then a vast amount of money would have changedhands. The king would have been invited to drink again, and perhaps haverecovered without having the least idea where he was for the next fewdays. In a word, he would have disappeared. In four and twenty hours allEurope would have heard of the abdication. Now, where are those papersnow? The king certainly had them in his possession when he was rescuedfrom the gambling hell."
"I wish you had looked," Maxwell said. "If I had known this earlier!"
"Unfortunately, nobody knew of it," Lechmere proceeded. "Only ourenemies. And when Maxgregor went off from here in the king's dressclothes, he took the papers in the pockets. If Madame Saens has an ideaof what has happened, she knows this. Hence her note to Mazaroff. As amatter of fact, our friend the General is in considerable peril."
"In which case somebody ought to go to him at once," Jessie exclaimed.
Lechmere announced his intention of doing so without delay, but Maxwellobjected. It would be far better for Lechmere to stay here and keep aneye on Mazaroff. And Maxwell was supposed to be out of the way, nobodywould give him a second thought; therefore he was the best man for thepurpose. Varney was warmly in favour of this suggestion, and Lechmerehad no further objection to offer.
"Let it go at that," he said. "And the sooner you are off the better.There is one great point in our favour, these people can do nothing veryharmful so long as those papers are missing. I mean the Foreign Officepapers stolen from Countess Saens's bedroom. If we could get themback----"
"They must be got back," Varney said. "The best I can do is to go downto Scotland Yard and report the loss without being too free over thecontents of the documents. Once those are back in our hands, our peoplecan afford to be blandly ignorant of what the _Mercury_ said to-night."
"And I should be free to hold up my head again." Maxwell murmured. "ButI am wasting time here."
Maxwell disappeared into the darkness and made his way by the back laneinto Piccadilly. The streets were quiet now, and very few people about.It was no far cry to the chambers occupied by General Maxgregor, and notime would be lost by going to the house of Countess Saens. Maxwellpaused before it a moment. The dining-room blinds were still up, and thelights gleaming inside. But so far as Maxwell could see the room wasempty. He lingered as long as he dared in the hope of somethinghappening. He was just turning away when the front door opened and a mancame out. In the passing flash of the street lamp Maxwell recognized theman who he had mistaken for the King of Asturia. The likeness became noless strong under Maxwell's close scrutiny.
The man stopped on the doorstep and lit a cigarette, and then he pulledhis hat over his eyes and turned up his coat collar, warm as the nightwas. A hansom crawled along with the driver half asleep on his perch. Ina strong German accent the man on the pavement called to the driver.
"Fleet Street!" he said. "No 191B, Fleet Street! Office of the _EveningMercury_, you know. Wake up!"
Maxwell felt half inclined to follow. But he thought of the possibledanger to Maxgregor, and he was forced unwillingly to abandon hisintention. Acting on the impulse of the moment, he ran up the steps ofthe house and tried the door. To his surprise the lock turned in hishand. At the same moment the blinds in the dining-room were pulled downby the countess herself, and the lights switched off. Maxwell stood withthe door just opened; he saw the figure of the countess herself mountingup the stairs. He could hear distinctly the swish of her skirts. Thenthere was another click, and the hall lights vanished. Countess Saenswas going to bed, having forgotten to lock the front door! That all theservants had gone to bed Maxwell felt certain, for the area quarterswere all in black darkness.
"Astonishing how careless these clever women are sometimes!" Maxwellmuttered as he took his way down the road. "I suppose the servantsgenerally see to that, and her ladyship has entirely forgotten a thingthat never comes within the scope of her duties."
Maxgregor's place was reached at length, and Maxwell was glad to see thelights burning. A sleepy porter had not the slightest idea whether theGeneral was in or out. He was just going to bed himself; he never sat upafter midnight, and if the gentlemen were out after this without theirkeys it was their own fault. Maxwell cut short this tirade by goingupstairs. He walked straight into Maxgregor's sitting-room. It was adark room on the first floor with folding doors. On the other side ofthe folding doors the General was stretched out on the bed. He lookedsomewhat haughtily at the intruder.
"This is an unexpected honour," he said. "I have met you once or twice,Mr. Maxwell, but that does not give you the right to come into mybedroom in this fashion. In the light of recent events----"
"For Heaven's sake don't take that tone!" Maxwell cried passionately."It is impossible not to understand what you are alluding to. And it isquite futile just now to protest my innocence. That I am innocent; thatsooner or later you will have to apologize for your suspicions isinevitable. Meanwhile, I am here at the request of Mr. Lechmere and Dr.Varney to warn you of your danger. Cleverly as your escape was managed,it has been found out. Let me tell you what has happened?"
The General bowed coldly. He looked on the speaker as the cause of allthe trouble. He was not going to accept a mere protestation of innocencein this way. And yet there was a ring of sincerity in what Maxwell said.He was here, also, of his own free will, and his news was serious.
"So that accursed woman has hit the right nail again," he growled. "Thatletter you speak of means mischief to me. I wonder if the countess knowsthat I am wounded? I dare say she does. I might have been murdered in mybed if you had not come."
"You would have been murdered," Maxwell retorted. "That is absolutelycertain. Are you very ill?"
"No; it was merely a flesh wound in the shoulder. The bullet has beenextracted. I lost blood, and I am feeling rather weak at present, but ina day or two I shall be quite myself again."
"How did you manage to keep the thing so quiet?"
"I sent for a doctor friend of mine. He was with me in the firstAsturian campaign--a fellow who has a fortune, and loves doctoring as apastime. He knows a lot about the Balkan business. I asked him to keepthis matter a secret, and he has done so. Is there anything else I cantell you?"
"It seems to me that there is a good deal that you can tell me," Maxwellreplied. "When you walked off with the king's clothes you probably wentaway with papers that may be used with great effect against Russia ifthey fall into proper hands--our hands, that is. If you don't mind, Ishall be glad to turn out the pockets of that coat."
"That is an excellent idea," Maxgregor said. "What did I do?--oh, Iknow. The porter took the whole suit down to be brushed; as I don't keepa man he acts as my valet. If you would not mind going down into thehall and asking the fellow?"
Maxwell vanished at once. But the hall porter had departed for thenight, so the occupant of another set of chambers said as he opened theouter door with his latchkey. At the same moment a figure bolted pastthe door, a figure with coat collar turned up and hat pulled down. Itwas the double of the King of Asturia. Maxgregor's face grew stern as heheard.
"Let us anticipate events," he said. "Put out the lig
hts in mysitting-room and close the door. When you have done that put out thelight here also. There is a way into the corridor out of this roomwithout going through the sitting-room. Place the key of thesitting-room door on the outside."
Maxwell crept back presently, having accomplished his task. For half anhour or more the two sat in the pitch darkness saying not a word to eachother. It seemed a long time, but the watchers knew that something wasgoing to happen and stifled their impatience. Presently Maxwell feltthat a hand was clutching him by the arm. Maxgregor was whisperingsomething in his ear.
And under the folding doors a long slit of light filtered into thebedroom. Somebody had turned up the light in the sitting-room!