An Imperial Marriage

  CHAPTER XXII

  IN SEARCH OF THE BARON

  Anyone who has ever lived in the capital of the German Empire, or indeedin any German town of size, knows the absolute futility of arguing withthe police. Definite regulations are laid down for them, as the sand ofthe sea in number and an auctioneer's catalogue in precision of detail;and unless you are a person of infinite leisure and unruffled temper,you will do what they tell you and do it without remonstrance.

  When they insisted upon detaining me upon suspicion of having fired theshot which had attracted their notice, I could not restrain a heatedprotest or two; but I soon ceased to remonstrate.

  I chafed and fretted at the detention; and all the more so, becausewhile one of them took charge of me, his companion made a long searchfor my assailant. He must have been an extremely conscientious fellow,for he showed more than German thoroughness in the search. They arevery rarely quick in their methods, but they claim to be sure; and whenhe returned after nearly an hour, he had quite convinced himself thatthe man was not hidden anywhere near us.

  "You must have fired the shot," he said, with an air of satisfiedconviction, "or I should have found the man. There was no one elseabout." He then ran his hands down outside my coat, felt my revolverand drew it out. "Ah, I knew it," he exclaimed triumphantly.

  "Do let us go to the station," I said impatiently.

  "You'll have enough of that before this is settled. Who are you, andwhere do you live?"

  I said I would explain everything at the police quarters, and to myrelief we set off for them then.

  As a matter of fact, I was not a little bothered how to reply to thequestions. If I gave my address, I knew that it was quite in accordancewith the regulation methods for some one to be sent to search my house;and apart altogether from the alarm which such a proceeding would causeAlthea following upon the news of my arrest, there was the awkward factof the Baron's presence there.

  Again, the ordinary process of interrogation would be directed toextracting from me a detailed account of my movements during the hoursprior to the act with which I was to be charged. Police inquiries undersuch circumstances are inspired with as much minuteness as the averageTeutonic biblical criticism.

  The inquisitor at such times always presses his questions under thebelief that at the bottom of the charge there is some heinous crimewhich he will be able to unearth if only he is clever enough.

  The moment I was inside the building, therefore, I made haste to get outmy version of the affair, and ended with a request for a communicationto be made at once to Dormund or Feldermann.

  The officer in charge listened with a frown of impatience, and thenturned to the men who had taken me in charge. He was a surlyindividual; and when my revolver was produced, he gathered it in with asort of cluck, such as a broody hen might give on discovering a titbitfor her chicks.

  "You will see that it is loaded in every barrel," I said.

  He did not even take the trouble to look. The fact that a shot had beenfired, and that I had been found running away and in the possession of aweapon, was obviously proof enough for him. "Well, your name andaddress?" he grunted as he took up his pen very deliberately.

  "Paul Bastable."

  "Where do you live. Answer."

  I replied that I had been a newspaper correspondent and gave him thename of the paper, adding that both Dormund and Feldermann were myfriends.

  "Where do you live?" he repeated.

  "They know me perfectly well, and I desire to communicate with them."

  "Address refused," he murmured as if to himself, and wrote that down.It was the preface to just such a list of questions as I hadanticipated. What I was doing in the streets at that time of night;where I had been; where I was going; why I carried a revolver; why I hadfired the shot; what I had done all the evening, and so on.

  I returned much the same answer to all the questions--that I wished tobe allowed to communicate with either Dormund or Feldermann; and wereached a deadlock, and he was ordering me to the cells, when itoccurred to me to play the "British subject" card.

  "Wait a moment, please. You have ignored my statement and are going tocharge me with a serious, offence. I am a British subject and demand tobe allowed to communicate with the British consul."

  I knew he dared not refuse, and was pleased to see his shaggy brows knitmore closely than ever as he thought it over.

  "How do I know that?" he asked after a pause.

  "Both Herr Dormund and Herr Feldermann know it." I was resolved to rubtheir names into him at every available chance. "Let me assure you thatI have told you the absolute truth in regard to that shot. The mistakewhich your men made was quite intelligible under the circumstances, butit was a mistake. The shot was fired by a man whom I think I couldidentify; it was fired at me; and I was pursuing him when I wasarrested."

  His face might have been a barber's dummy for all the effect thisappeared to produce. A long pause followed while he thought over theposition, and then he told the others to take me off to the cells.

  "You will enter the fact that I have demanded to see my consul, please,"I said as I was led away; but like the rest, this elicited no notice.

  I was left to cool my heels there for about an hour. I did not care twostraws about the charge which had been preferred against me; but thedelay fretted me almost into a fever, and had I been left much longer Ibelieve I should have even ventured to make some attempt to escape.

  But to my intense relief when the cell door was opened, Dormund wasthere. He favoured me with one of his driest smiles as he held out hishand. "You have a rare capacity for getting into trouble, HerrBastable. Surely you know that revolver practice in the streets ofBerlin is illegal."

  "You have some really sharp fellows under you," I retorted with a grin."Last time they accused me of having murdered myself, and now they thinkI tried to do it again."

  He led me off to a room where we were alone. "Now tell me all aboutit."

  I told him succinctly what had occurred. He accepted my story at onceand together we smiled at the mistake of the others. "But you had noright to have this thing with you at all," he said, referring to thepistol. "You know the law. We shall have to keep it, and I'm afraid youmust be prepared to answer for its possession."

  "Anyhow, you can see that it hasn't been fired since it was cleaned.Get that quite clear, and I don't mind admitting that I often carry sucha thing for my own protection."

  "Do you still wish to communicate with your consul, or to make any fussabout the mistake these men made?"

  "I want to get home and get to bed. All the rest can go hang."

  "We can manage that, but you'll hear about the revolver from us in a dayor so. Here are the rest of your things"; and soon afterwards we leftthe place together.

  "Have you taken the advice I gave you yet?" he asked as we walked towardmy house.

  "What was that?"

  "You were at the station to-night, you said. Have your friends gone?"

  "No," I replied after a pause. "But I can assure you that all thatbother is over and done with. I've been very anxious, but I've won allalong the line."

  "I am very glad to hear it. How?"

  "You'll hear all about it to-morrow or the next day at latest."

  "Well, we're schooled to patience, you know. I hope you are right. AndI'm heartily glad you were not detained to-night; it might not have beenso easy to get you out to-morrow, if a singular rumour running round ourplace has any foundation--about that old Jew's murder. Fortunately, Idon't know anything officially, or I couldn't tell you. But I shouldadvise you to be careful. Good-night"; and without waiting for anyreply he turned away and left me.

  I attached no importance to his words at the time. It was not probablethat anything could have leaked out yet about von Felsen or the factthat I had got a confession from him; and having that, I cared not a jotfor anything else.

  My one anxiety
was to get home and assure myself that Althea's fatherwas still in the house.

  Althea met me as I entered, and her looks showed me in a second thatsomething was wrong.

  "Thank Heaven, you have come, Paul. I have been tortured with the fearthat something must have happened to you."

  "Your father?" I asked.

  She threw up her hands. "You have guessed it then?"

  "Tell me. I have been haunted by the fear that he heard us speakingabout the house being clear of the police."

  "He has gone, Paul. What do you think can have happened?"

  At the sight of her agitation I blamed myself for having let her see bymy eager question how grave a view I took of the matter.

  "I was half afraid of something of the sort," I replied in a muchlighter tone, as we went into the drawing-room; "but no doubt I can putit all right. Bessie told me at the station that he had beendownstairs; and that noise you and I heard when we were talking aboutthe police was probably when he heard what we said. It is unfortunate,of course; but it will be all right."

  "You are only saying that to ease my mind, Paul."

  "No, on my word. I am quite sure of being able to secure his pardon,and no trouble can come of this unless he meets with it from any othersource. No police trouble, I mean. As for the rest I believe I knowwhere to look for him, and of course I must be off at once. But tell mefirst all what led up to his going."

  She described his conduct during the day. He had been possessed by thethought that there had been some treachery to the cause; our story ofthe failure of the scheme had intensely excited him, and in this respecthe suspected me of treachery; he had been fretting to get away toconsult with others, and had only been kept in the house through fear ofthe police surrounding it.

  "I went straight up to my room the moment you left with Bessie," sheconcluded, "and not finding him there went to his room. He was notthere either. I called to him, but he did not reply; and thinking hemight have been taken ill again, I made a thorough search of the house.He must have hidden somewhere and slipped out without my knowledge."

  While she was telling me this the thought of the bomb I had given to himflashed across my thoughts, and only with the greatest difficulty couldI repress the consternation it caused. Had he taken it with him? Was hemad enough to make the attempt to wreck the cruiser alone? If so, andhe were found with that in his possession, or if he made any such madattempt, the discovery of my part in the affair was all but certain.

  "I'll go and have a look at his room, Althea," I said quietly when shehad told me all she knew, and we went upstairs together. "Thank theLord he has left his bag here," I cried with a sigh of satisfaction as Isaw it. I had never felt such a flush of infinite relief in my lifebefore.

  But it was only for a moment, until I had forced the bag open.

  The bomb was gone!

  Althea saw then how the discovery affected me. The sudden rush from fearto relief, and back to fear.

  "Paul!" Her face was white and strained.

  I shook myself together and forced a smile. "Thank goodness he can dono harm with it at any rate. And he might have taken this too." He hadleft the revolver behind, and I slipped it into my pocket. "He cannotget into any very serious trouble before I find him. I'll go at once."

  I went first to my own room to get some cartridges for the revolver inplace of the blank ones with which I had before loaded it, and as wewere going downstairs Althea asked me what had kept me so long away.

  "I was arrested, but had no difficulty in explaining matters." I didnot say anything about the attempt on my life, not wishing to alarm her.

  "I was sure there was trouble," she cried in distress. "I have broughtso much to you already."

  "To-morrow we shall just smile at it all. I am absolutely confident,Althea."

  "I cannot smile yet, Paul, nor be confident either. I could almostwish----"

  I gathered her in my arms. "You must never harbour that thought again,dearest. Never if you love me."

  "You would at least be safe; and the thought of your danger chills mewith dread every minute you are away."

  "But the mere fact that I have been in the hands of the police withinthe last hour and am here now at your side may tell you there is no suchdanger as you fear. You do but frighten yourself with shadows. Ifthere had been any real trouble such as you fear, they would havedetained me."

  "I cannot help it, Paul. If it were only myself I should not care," shesaid with a heavy sigh.

  "Keep this in your thoughts then. Bessie has taken with her somethingwhich would cut the knot of our difficulties were it twenty times worsethan it is. But now what of yourself? Will you stay here alone, or goto Chalice?"

  "Stay here. My father may return. I shall wait up all night for him."

  "I shall bring him back in an hour or so. You will see," I saidcheerfully.

  "I pray with all my heart you will. But where are you going?"

  "I think I know where to find him; but I must not stay to tell you anymore. Keep a stout heart for that hour or so, and all will be well."

  I put all the cheering confidence I could into my tone and manner, butit was of little avail. "I wish I could go with you," she criedwistfully. "If you do not return soon I shall be fit to do somethingdesperate. I cannot tell you how this suspense tortures me. It was allI could do to prevent myself from coming after you just now."

  "You cannot do anything but wait, dearest. Wait and trust. It will allcome right."

  But although I had spoken so confidently to Althea, I was very far fromfeeling so; and as I hurried through the deserted streets I wished theBaron had been at Jerusalem and all his mad-brained schemes and causeand associates with him before he had come to plunge us all into thisunsavoury mess.

  There was, of course, only one place in the whole city where I could goin search of him--the wharf of W. Mischen; and it was no more than abare possibility that he or any one else would be there at that time ofnight.

  Moreover, if I did succeed in finding him there it was anything butclear how I could get him away. Already he entertained the gravestsuspicions of me; and the moment he spoke to any of his infernalassociates, all the fairy tales I had told him would be exposed.

  He would show the bomb which I had given to him; and it needed no giftof prophecy to understand the feeling which would be aroused against me.Every man in the crowd would be itching to slit my throat or put abullet into me.

  There was just one chance in a million in my favour--that he had set outto blow up the "warship" by himself. But even that would not help me; asI should most certainly be unable to trace his movements.

  If it had not been for the sham bomb which I had given him with itscompromising history connecting me closely and certainly with it, Ishould have given up the quest altogether and left him to find his wayback to the house. But I dared not leave that broad trail without atleast a desperate effort to efface it. If it were discovered and mypurchase of it proved, it would taint the whole story I had to tell ofmy possession of the paper I had secured from von Felsen. It would allbe set down to my connexion with these infernal Poles.

  In a word I was just at the end of my wits; and when I turned into thelane leading down to the wharf, I did not know whether to hope that Ishould find it empty or not.

  I went very warily as I neared the place, pausing many a time to lookabout me. If any one was in the building, it was almost a certaintythat spies would be somewhere in hiding to give warning to those withinof the approach of any unwelcome strangers.

  I scanned every possible hiding spot, therefore; and satisfied myselfthat no one was about; and so far as I could judge, the building itselfwas empty. It was shut up and in total darkness.

  I pressed my ear against the door, and listened intently for any soundwithin. It was as still as the grave. I think I was relieved to findit so.

  I was turning away to think what I could do next, when I heard a faintsound of cautious footsteps in th
e lane above.

  Whoever might be coming, I had no mind to be caught in that equivocalposition, so I crept away stealthily, keeping close in the shadows, andhid myself behind a heap of rubbish which stood against the adjoiningwarehouse, as two men came cautiously down the narrow street.

  I was soon satisfied that the newcomers were not the regular policepatrol; but they might be detectives. I should be in a pretty mess ifthey were; and I held my breath as they came near, watching them thewhile with straining eyes and quickened pulse. And then I saw that theythemselves were being shadowed.