For the moment the fortitude of the hapless young lieutenant completely broke down when he heard these tidings. It took him a minute to control his voice, and then he said—
"Please give me back my revolver. I give you my word of honour not to use it on any of you three."
Commander Blacklock shook his head.
"I am sorry we can't oblige you," said he.
"Poor old chap," said Phipps with genial sympathy; "it's rotten bad luck on you, I must admit."
These well-meant words seemed only to incense the captive.
"I do not wish your damned sympathy!" he cried.
"Hush, hush! Ladies present," said Phipps soothingly.
Von Belke turned a lowering eye on Miss Holland. She had said not a word, and scarcely moved since he came into the room, but her breathing was a little quicker than usual, and her gaze had followed intently each speaker in turn.
"Ach so!" he said; "the decoy is still present. I had forgot."
Blacklock's eye blazed dangerously.
"Mr Belke," he said, "Captain Phipps and I have pleaded very strongly that, in spite of your exceedingly ambiguous position, and the fact that you have not always been wearing uniform, you should not suffer the fate of a spy. But if you make any more remarks like your last, I warn you we shall withdraw this plea."
For the first time Eileen spoke.
"Please do not think it matters to me, Captain Blacklock——" she began.
In a whisper Phipps interrupted her.
"Eye-wash!" he said. "It's the only way to treat a Hun—show him the stick!"
The hint had certainly produced its effect. Von Belke shrugged his shoulders, and merely remarked—
"I am your prisoner. I say nothing more."
"That's distinctly wiser," said Captain Phipps, with a formidable scowl at the captive and a wink at Miss Holland.
For a few moments von Belke kept his word, and sat doggedly silent. Then suddenly he exclaimed—
"But I do not understand all this! How should a German agent be a British officer? My Government knew all about Tiel—I was told to be under his orders—it is impossible you can be he!"
Blacklock turned to the other two.
"I almost think I owe Mr Belke an explanation," he said with a smile.
"Yes," cried Eileen eagerly, "do tell him, and then—then he will understand a little better."
Blacklock filled a pipe and leaned his back against the fireplace, a curious mixture of clergyman in his attire and keen professional sailor in his voice and bearing, now that all need for pretence was gone.
"The story I told you of the impersonation and attempted murder of Mr Alexander Burnett," he began, "was simply a repetition of the tale told me by Adolph Tiel at Inverness—where, by the way, he was arrested."
Von Belke started violently.
"So!" he cried. "Then—then you never were Tiel?"
"I am thankful to say I never was, for a more complete scoundrel never existed. He and his friend Schumann actually did knock Mr Burnett on the head, tie a stone to his feet, and pitch him over the cliff. Unfortunately for them, they made a bad job of the knot and the stone came loose. In consequence, Mr Burnett floated long enough to be picked up by a patrol boat, which had seen the whole performance outlined against the sky at the top of the cliff above her. By the time they had brought him back to a certain base, Mr Burnett had revived and was able to tell of his adventure. The affair being in my line, was put into my hands, and it didn't take long to see what the rascals' game was."
"No," commented Phipps; "I suppose you spotted that pretty quick."
"Practically at once. A clergyman on his way here—clothes and passport stolen—left for murdered—chauffeur so like him that the minister noticed the resemblance himself in the instant the man was knocking him down,—what was the inference? Pretty obvious, you'll agree. Well, the first step was simple. The pair had separated; but we got Tiel at Inverness on his way North, and Schumann within twenty-four hours afterwards at Liverpool."
"Good business!" said Phipps. "I hadn't heard about Schumann before."
"Well," continued Blacklock, "I interviewed Mr Tiel, and I found I'd struck just about the worst thing in the way of rascals it has ever been my luck to run up against. He began to bargain at once. If his life was spared he would give me certain very valuable information."
"Mein Gott!" cried Belke. "Did a German actually say that?"
"Tiel belongs to no country," said Blacklock. "He is a cosmopolitan adventurer without patriotism or morals. I told him his skin would be safe if his information really proved valuable; and when I heard his story, I may say that he did save his skin. He gave the whole show away, down to the passwords that were to pass between you when you met."
He suddenly turned to Phipps and smiled.
"It's curious how the idea came to me. I've done a good bit of secret service work myself, and felt in such a funk sometimes that I've realised the temptation to give the show away if I were nailed. Well, as I looked at Tiel, I said to myself, 'There, but for the grace of God, stands Robin Blacklock!' And then suddenly it flashed into my mind that we were really not at all unlike one another—same height, and tin-opener nose, and a few streaks of anno domini in our hair, and so on."
"I know, old thing," said his friend, "it's the wife-poisoning type. You see 'em by the dozen in the Chamber of Horrors."
Their Teutonic captive seemed to wax a little impatient.
"What happened then?" he demanded.
"What happened was that I decided to continue Mr Tiel's journey for him. The arrest and so on had lost a day, but I knew that the night of your arrival was left open, and I had to risk it. That splash of salt water on your motor bike, and your resource in dodging pursuit, just saved the situation, and we arrived at the house on the same night."
"So that was why you were late!" exclaimed von Belke. "Fool that I was not to have questioned and suspected!"
"It might have been rather a nasty bunker," admitted Blacklock, "but luckily I got you to lose your temper with me when I reached that delicate part of my story, and you forgot to ask me."
"You always were a tactful fellow, Robin," murmured Phipps.
"Of course," resumed Blacklock, "I was in touch with certain people who advised me what scheme to recommend. My only suggestion was that the officer sent to advise us professionally should be one whose appearance might lead those who did not know him to suspect him capable of treasonable inclinations. My old friend, Captain Phipps——"
"Robin!" roared his old friend, "I read your bloomin' message. You asked for the best-looking officer on the staff, and the one with the nicest manners. Get on with your story!"
These interludes seemed to perplex their captive considerably.
"You got a pretended traitor? I see," he said gravely.
"Exactly. I tried you first with Ashington of theHaileybury—whom I slandered grossly by the way. If you had happened to know him by sight I should have passed on to another captain, till I got one you didn't know. Well, I needn't recall what happened at our council of war, but now we come to rather a——" he hesitated and glanced for an instant at Miss Holland,—"well, rather a delicate point in the story. I think it's only fair to those concerned to tell you pretty fully what happened. I believe I am right in thinking that they would like me to do so."
Again he glanced at the girl, and this time she gave a little assenting nod.
"That night, after you left us, Mr Belke, Captain Phipps and I had a long discussion over a very knotty point. How were we to get you back again here after you had delivered your message to your submarine?"
"I do not see exactly why you wished me to return?" said von Belke.
"There were at least three vital reasons, In the first place some one you spoke to might have known too much about Tiel and have spotted the fraud. Then again, some one might easily have known the real Captain Ashington, and it would be a little difficult to describe Captain Phipps in such a way as to confound him with any one else. Finally, we wished to extract a little more information from you."
Von Belke leapt from his seat with an exclamation.
"What have I not told you!" he cried hoarsely. "Mein Gott, I had forgotten that! Give me that pistol! Come, give it to me! Why keep me alive?"
"I suppose because it is an English custom," replied Commander Blacklock quietly. "Also, you will be exceedingly glad some day to find yourself still alive. Please sit down and listen. I am anxious to explain this point fully, for a very good reason."
With a groan their captive sat down, but with his head held now between his hands and his eyes cast upon the floor.
"We agreed that at all costs this must be managed, and so I tried my hand at exercising my authority over you. I saw that was going to be no good, and gave it up at once for fear you'd smell a rat. And then I thought of Miss Holland."
Von Belke looked up suddenly.
"Ah!" he cried, "so that is why this lady appeared—this lady I may not call a decoy!"
"That is why," said Blacklock.
Lieutenant von Belke looked for a moment at the lady who had enslaved him, but for some reason he averted his gaze rather quickly. Then with an elaborate affectation of sarcastic politeness which served but ill to conceal the pain at his heart and the shock to his pride, he inquired—
"May I be permitted to ask what agency supplies ladies so accomplished at a notice so brief?"
"Providence," said Blacklock promptly and simply. "Miss Holland had never undertaken any such work before, and her name is on the books of no bureau."
"I believe you entirely," said von Belke ironically. "You taught her her trade then, I presume?"
"I did."
The German stared at him.
"Is there really any need to deceive me further?" he inquired.
"I am telling you the simple truth," said Blacklock unruffled. "I had the great good fortune to make Miss Holland's acquaintance on the mail-boat crossing to these islands. She was going to visit Mr Craigie—that intellectual gentleman you met yesterday—under the precise circumstances he described. I noticed Miss Holland the moment she came aboard the boat." He paused for a moment, and then turned to Eileen with a smile. "I have a confession to make to you, Miss Holland, which I may as well get off my chest now. My mind, naturally enough perhaps, was rather running on spies, and when I discovered that you were travelling with a suit-case of German manufacture I had a few minutes' grave suspicion. I now apologise."
Eileen laughed.
"Only a few minutes!" she exclaimed. "It seems to me I got off very easily!"
"That was why I was somewhat persistent in my conversation," he continued, still smiling a little, "but it quickly served the purpose of satisfying me absolutely that my guns were on the wrong target. And so I promptly relieved you of my conversation."
He turned again to von Belke.
"Then, Mr Belke, a very curious thing happened, which one of us may perhaps be pardoned for thinking diabolical and the other providential. Miss Holland happened to have met the real Mr Burnett and bowled me out. And then I had another lucky inspiration. If Miss Holland will pardon me for saying so in her presence, I had already been struck with the fact that she was a young lady of very exceptional looks and brains and character—and, moreover, she knew Germany and she knew German. It occurred to me that in dealing with a young and probably not unimpressionable man such an ally might conceivably come in useful."
"Robin," interrupted his old friend, with his rich laugh, "you are the coldest-blooded brute I ever met!"
"To plot against a man like that!" agreed von Belke with bitter emphasis.
"Oh, I wasn't thinking of you," said Captain Phipps, with a gallant glance at the lady. "However, on you go with your yarn."
"Well, I decided on the spot to take Miss Holland into my confidence—and I should like to say that confidence was never better justified. She seemed inclined to do what she could for her country." Commander Blacklock paused for an instant, and added apologetically, "I am putting it very mildly and very badly, but you know what I mean. She was, in fact, ready to do anything I asked her on receipt of a summons from me. I had thought of her even when talking to Captain Phipps, but I felt a little reluctant to involve her in the business, with all it entailed, unless no other course remained open. And no other course was open. And so I first telegraphed to her and then went over and fetched her. That was how she came to play the part she did, entirely at my request and instigation."
"You—you then told her to—to make me admire her?" asked von Belke in an unsteady voice.
"Frankly I did. Of course it was not for me to teach a lady how to be attractive, but I may say that we rehearsed several of the scenes very carefully indeed,—I mean in connection with such matters as the things you should say to Commander Wiedermann, and so on. Miss Holland placed herself under my orders, and I simply told her what to say. She was in no sense to blame."
"Blame!" cried Captain Phipps. "She deserves all the decorations going!"
"I was trying to look at it from Mr Belke's point of view," said Blacklock, "as I think Miss Holland probably desires."
She gave him a quick, grateful look, and he continued—
"It was I who suggested that she should appear critical of me, and endeavour, as it were, to divide our household into two camps, so that you should feel you were acting against me when you were actually doing what I wished. I tell you this frankly so that you may see who was responsible for the deceit that we were forced to practise."
"Forced!" cried the young lieutenant bitterly. "Who forced you to use a woman? Could you not have deceived me alone?"
"No," said Blacklock candidly, "I couldn't, or I should not have sent for Miss Holland. It was an extremely difficult problem to get you to risk your life, and stand out against your commanding officer's wishes and your own inclinations and your apparent duty, and come back to this house after the whole plan was arranged and every argument seemed to be in favour of your going aboard your boat again. Nobody but a man under the influence of a woman would have taken such a course. Those were the facts I had to face, and—well, the thing came off, thanks entirely to Miss Holland. I have apologised to her twenty times already for making such a use of her, and I apologise again."
Suddenly the young German broke out.
"Ah! But were there not consolations?"
"What do you mean?"
"You and Miss Holland living by yourselves in this house—is it that you need apologise for?"
"Miss Holland never spent a single night under this roof," said Blacklock quietly.
"Not—not a night," stammered von Belke. "Then where——?"
"She stayed at a house in the neighbourhood."
The lieutenant seemed incapable of comment, and Captain Phipps observed genially,
"There seem to have been some rum goings-on behind your back, Mr Belke!"
Von Belke seemed to be realising this fact himself, and resenting it.
"You seem to have amused yourself very much by deceiving me," he remarked.
"I assure you I did nothing for fun," said Blacklock gravely, yet with a twinkle in his eye. "It was all in the way of business."
"The story that you preached, for instance!"
"Would you have felt quite happy if I had told you I had omitted to do the one thing I had professed to come here for?"
Von Belke gave a little sound that might have meant anything. Then he exclaimed—
"But your servant who was not supposed to know anything—that was to annoy me, I suppose!"
"To isolate you. I didn't want you to speak to a soul but me."
The captive sat silent for a moment, and then said—
"You had the house watched by the police—I see that now."
"A compliment to you, Mr Belke," smiled the Commander; and then he added, "You gave me one or two anxious moments, I may tell you. Your demand for mufti necessitated a very hurried interview with the commander of a destroyer, and old Craigie's visit very nearly upset the apple-cart. I had to tell him pretty nearly the whole truth when I got him outside. But those incidents came after the chief crisis was over. The nearest squeak was when I thought you were safely engaged with Miss Holland, and a certain officer was calling on me, who wasnotCaptain Phipps. In fact, he was an even more exalted person. Miss Holland saved the situation by crying out that you were coming, or I'm afraid that would have been the end of the submarine attack."
"So?" said the young German slowly and with a very wry face, and then he turned to Eileen. "Then, Miss Holland, every time you did me the honour to appear kind and visit me you were carrying out one of this gentleman's plans? And every word you spoke was said to entangle me in your net, or to keep me quiet while something was being done behind my back? I hope that some day you may enjoy the recollection as much as I am enjoying it now!"
"Mr Belke," she cried, "I am very deeply sorry for treating even an enemy as I treated you!"
She spoke so sincerely and with so much emotion that even Captain Phipps assumed a certain solemn expression, which was traditionally never seen on his face except when the Chaplain was actually officiating, and jumping up she came a step towards the prisoner. There she stood, a graceful and beautiful figure, her eyes glowing with fervour.
"All I can say for myself, and all I can ask you to think of when your recollections of me pain you, is only this—if you had a sister, would you have had her hesitate to do one single thing I did in order to defeat her country's enemies?"
Von Belke looked at her for a moment with frowning brow and folded arms. Then all he said was—
"Germany's cause is sacred!"
Her eyes opened very wide.
"Then what is right for Germany is wrong for her enemies?"
"Naturally. How can Germany both be right—as she is, and yet be wrong?"
"I—I don't think you quite understand what I mean," she said with a puzzled look.
"Germany never will," said Blacklock quietly. "That is why we are at war."
A tramp of footsteps sounded on the gravel outside, and Captain Phipps sprang up.
"Your guard has come for you, Mr Belke," he said. "I'm sorry to interrupt this conversation, but I'm afraid you must be moving."
Commander Blacklock closed the front door.
"Chilly night," he observed.
"It is rather," said Eileen.
The wind droned through a distant keyhole mournfully and continuously. That melancholy piping sound never rose and never fell; monotonous and unvarying it piped on and on. Otherwise the house had that peculiar feeling of quiet which houses have when stirring events are over and people have departed.
The two remaining inhabitants re-entered the parlour, glanced at one another with a half smile, and then seemed simultaneously to find a little difficulty in knowing what to do next.
"Well," said Blacklock, "our business seems over."
He felt he had spoken a little more abruptly than he intended, and would have liked to repeat his observations in a more genial tone.
"Yes," said she almost as casually, "there is nothing more to be done to-night, I suppose."
"I shall have to write up my report of our friend Mr Belke's life and last words," said he with a half laugh.
"And I have got to get over to Mrs Brown's," she replied, "and so I had better go at once."
"Oh, there's no such desperate hurry," he said hastily; "I haven't much to write up to-night. We must have some supper first."
"Yes," she agreed, "I suppose we shall begin to feel hungry soon if we don't. I'll see about it. What would you like?"
"The cold ham and a couple of boiled eggs will suit me."
She agreed again.
"That won't take long, and then you can begin your report."
Again he protested hastily.
"Oh, but there's no hurry about that, I assure you. I only wanted to save trouble."
While she was away he stood before the fire, gazing absently into space and scarcely moving a muscle. The ham and boiled eggs appeared, and a little more animation became apparent, but it was not a lively feast. She talked for a little in an ordinary, cheerful way, just as though there was no very special subject for conversation; but he seemed too absent-minded and silent to respond even to these overtures, except with a brief smile and a briefer word. They had both been quite silent for about five minutes, when he suddenly said in a constrained manner, but with quite a different intonation—
"Well, I am afraid our ways part now. What are you going to do next?"
"I've been wondering," she said; "and I think if Mrs Craigie still wants me I ought to go back to her."
"Back to the Craigies!" he exclaimed. "And become—er—a governess again?"
"It will be rather dull at first," she laughed; "but one can't have such adventures as this every day, and I really have treated the Craigies rather badly. You see you told Mr Craigie the truth about my desertion of them, and they may forgive me. If they do, and if they still need me, I feel I simply must offer my services."
"It's very good of you."
She laughed again.
"It is at least as much for my own interest as Mrs Craigie's. I have nowhere else to go to and nothing else to do."
"I wish I could offer you another job like this," said he.
A sparkle leapt into her eyes.
"If you ever do see any chance of making any sort of use of me—I mean of letting me be useful—you will be sure to let me know, won't you?"
"Rather! But honestly, I'm not likely to have such a bit of luck as this again."
"What will you be doing?"
"Whatever I'm told to do; the sort of thing I was on before—odd jobs of the 'hush' type. But I wish I could think of you doing something more—well, more worthy of your gifts."
"One must take one's luck as it comes," she said with an outward air of philosophy, whatever her heart whispered.
"Exactly," he agreed with emphasis. "Still——"
He broke off, and pulled a pipe out of his pocket.
"I'll leave you to smoke," she said, "and say good-night now."
"One moment!" said he, jumping up; "there's something I feel I must say. I've been rather contrite about it. I'm afraid I haven't quite played cricket so far as you are concerned."
She looked at him quickly.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"It's about Belke. I'm afraid Phipps was quite right in saying I'm rather cold-blooded when I am keen over a job. Perhaps it becomes a little too much of a mere problem. Getting you to treat Belke as you did, for instance. You were very nice to him to-night—though he was too German to understand how you felt—and it struck me that very possibly you had been seeing a great deal of him, and he's a nice-looking fellow, with a lot of good stuff in him, a brave man, no doubt about it, and—well, perhaps you liked him enough to make you wish I hadn't let you in for such a job. I just wondered."
She looked at him for an instant with an expression he did not quite understand; then she looked away and seemed for a moment a little embarrassed, and then she looked at him again, and he thought he had never seen franker eyes.
"You're as kind and considerate as—as, well, as you're clever!" she said with a half laugh. "But, if you only knew, if you only even had the least guess how I've longed to do something for my country—something really useful, I mean; how unutterably wretched I felt when the trifling work I was doing was stopped by a miserable neglected cold and I had to have a change, and as I'd no money I had to take this stupid job of teaching; and how I envied the women who were more fortunate and reallyweredoing useful things; oh, then you'd know how grateful I feel to you! If I could make every officer in the German navy—and the army too—fall in love with me, and then hand them over to you, I'd do it fifty times over! Don't, please, talk nonsense, or think nonsense! Good-night, Mr Tiel, and perhaps it's good-bye."
She laughed as she gave him hisnom-de-guerre, and held out her hand as frankly as she had spoken. He did not take it, however.
"I'm going to escort you over to Mrs Brown's," he said with a very different expression now in his eyes.
"It's very good of you," she said; "you are sure you have time?"
"Loads!" he assured her.
He opened the door for her, but she stopped on the threshold. A young woman was waiting in the hall.
"Mrs Brown has sent her girl to escort me," she said, "so we'll have to"—she corrected herself—"we must say good-night now. Is it good-bye, or shall I see you in the morning?"
His face had become very long again.
"I'm very much afraid not. I've got to report myself with the lark. Good-bye."
The front door closed behind her, and Commander Blacklock strode back to the fire and gazed at it for some moments.
"Well," he said to himself, "I suppose, looking at things as they ought to be looked at, Mrs Brown's girl has saved me from making a damned fool of myself! Now to work: that's my proper stunt."
He threw some sheets of foolscap on the table, took out his pen, and sat down to his work. For about five minutes he stared at the foolscap, but the pen never made a movement. Then abruptly he jumped up and exclaimed—
"Dash it, I must!"
Snatching up an envelope, he thrust it in his pocket, and a moment later was out of the house.
*****
Miss Holland and her escort were about fifty yards from Mrs Brown's house when the girl started and looked back.
"There's some one crying on you!" she exclaimed.
Eileen stopped and peered back into the night. It had clouded over and was very dark. Very vaguely something seemed to loom up in the path behind them.
"Miss Holland!" cried a voice.
"It's the minister!" said the girl.
"The—who?" exclaimed Eileen; and added hastily, "Oh yes, I know who you mean."
A tall figure disengaged itself from the surrounding night.
"Sorry to trouble you," said the voice in curiously quick and jerky accents, "but I've got a note I want this girl to deliver immediately."
He handed her an envelope.
"Hand that in at the first farm on the other side of the Manse," he commanded, pointing backwards into the darkness. "I'll escort Miss Holland."
"Which hoose——" began the girl.
"The first you come to!" said the Commander peremptorily. "Quick as you can!"
Then he looked at Eileen, and for a moment said nothing.
"What's the matter?" she asked anxiously. "Has anything gone wrong?"
"Yes," he said with a half laugh, "I have. I even forgot to lick down that envelope. How the deuce I'm to explain an empty, unaddressed, unfastened envelope the Lord only knows!" His manner suddenly changed and he asked abruptly, "Are you in a desperate hurry to get in? I've something to say to you."
He paused and looked at her, but she said not a word in reply, not even to inquire what it was. A little jerkily he proceeded—
"I'm probably making just as great a fool of myself as Belke. But I couldn't let you go without asking—well, whether I am merely making a fool of myself. If you know what I mean and think I am, well, please just tell me you can manage to see yourself safely home—I know it's only about fifty yards—and I'll go and get that wretched envelope back from the girl and tell her another lie."
"Why should I think you are making a fool of yourself?" she asked in a voice that was very quiet, but not quite as even as she meant.
"Let's turn back a little way," he suggested quickly.
She said nothing, but she turned.
"Take my arm, won't you," he suggested.
In the bitterness of his heart he was conscious that he had rapped out this proposal in his sharpest quarter-deck manner. And he had meant to speak so gently! Yet she took his arm, a little timidly it is true, but no wonder, thought he. For a few moments they walked in silence, falling slower and slower with each step; and then they stopped. At that, speech seemed to be jerked out of him at last.
"I wonder if it's conceivable that you'd ever look upon me as anything but a calculating machine?" he inquired.
"I never thought of you in the least as that!" she exclaimed.
The gallant Commander evidently regarded this as a charitable exaggeration. He shook his head.
"You must sometimes. I know I must have seemed that sort of person."
"Not to me," she said.
He seemed encouraged, but still a little incredulous.
"Then did you ever really think of me as a human being—as a—as a—" he hesitated painfully—"as a friend?"
"Yes," she said, "of course I did—always as a friend."
"Could you possibly—conceivably—think of me as"—he hesitated, and then blurted out—"as, dash it all, head over ears in love with you?"
And then suddenly the Commander realised that he had not made a fool of himself after all.
The empty envelope was duly delivered, but no explanation was required. Mrs Brown's girl supplied all the information necessary.
"Of course I knew fine what he was after," said she.
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