LIEUTENANT VON BELKE'S NARRATIVE CONCLUDED
I.
WEDNESDAY.
I woke on Wednesday morning with an outlook so changed that I felt as
if some magician must have altered my nature. Theoretically I had
taken a momentous and dangerous decision at the call of duty, and all
my energies ought to have concentrated on the task of carrying it
through safely, thoroughly, and warily. I had need of more caution
than ever, and of the most constant vigilance--both for the sake of my
skin and my country. As a matter of fact I was possessed with the
recklessness of a man drifting on a plank down a rapid, where taking
thought will not serve him an iota. In vain I preached theoretical
caution to myself--exactly how vainly may be judged by my first
performance in the morning when I found myself alone with Eileen in the
parlour. She suggested that for my own sake I had better be getting
back to my room.
"Will you come and sit there with me?" I asked.
"I may pay a call upon you perhaps."
"After hours of loneliness! And then leave me lonelier than ever! No,
thank you, I shall stay down here."
"In your uniform?" she asked, opening her eyes a little. "No, no, Mr
Belke!"
"Well then, get me a suit of mufti!"
She looked at me hard.
"You will really run that risk?"
"It is now worth it," I said with meaning.
She looked away, and for a moment I thought she was pained--not
displeased, I am sure, but as if something had given her a pang of
sorrow. Then the look passed, and she cried--
"Well, if Tiel agrees!"
"Tiel be hanged! I don't care what he says!"
She began to smile.
"Do you propose to wear my clothes?" she inquired.
"Yours!" I exclaimed.
"Otherwise," she continued, "you must persuade Tiel to agree, for it is
only he who can provide you with a suit of mufti."
Presently Tiel came in and I put the demand to him at once. He looked
a little surprised, but, somewhat to my surprise, raised no serious
objections. His motives are hard to fathom, but I cannot help
suspecting that despite his air of self-confidence and authority, he
has an instinctive respect for an officer and acknowledges in his heart
that I am really his superior.
"You mustn't go outside the house, of course," he said, "and if by any
evil chance any visitor were to come in unexpectedly, you must have
some kind of a story ready."
"Have you had many visitors yet?" I asked with a touch of sarcasm.
"You never know your luck," said he, "and I believe in guarding against
all chances. If you are surprised, please remember that your name is
Mr Wilson."
"Wilson?" I said with some disgust. "Am I named in honour of that
swine in America?"
"You are named Wilson," said he, "because it is very like Watson and
Williams and several other common names. The less conspicuous and more
easily forgotten a name one takes, the better."
There is no doubt about the thoroughness of the man and the cunning
with which he lays even the smallest plans, and though I was a little
contemptuous of his finesse at the moment, I must confess I was
thankful enough for it not so very long afterwards.
"As for your business," added Tiel, "you are a Government inspector."
"Of what?" I asked.
"If you are asked, look deep and say nothing," said he. "The islands
are full of people on what they call in the Navy 'hush' jobs."
"You seem pretty intimately acquainted with the British Navy down to
its slang," I observed.
My nerves were perhaps a little strained this morning, and I meant by
this to make a sarcastic allusion to the kind of blackguards he dealt
with--such as Ashington. I glanced at Eileen as I spoke, and I was
surprised to see a sudden look, almost of alarm, in her eye. It was
turned on Tiel, but he appeared absolutely indifferent. I presumed she
feared he might take offence and make a row, but she need not have
worried. It would take a very pointed insult to rouse that calculating
machine.
"Can you get a suit of mufti for me?" I inquired.
"I'll look one out presently," said he.
"I presume you keep a few disguises!" I added.
"A few," said he with one of his brief smiles. "You had better go up
to your room in the meantime, and I'll bring it to you."
I fumed at the idea of any delay, and as I went to the door I said--
"Don't be long about it, please!"
More and more the thought of leaving those two alone together, even for
a short while, filled me with angry uneasiness, and I paced my bedroom
floor impatiently enough. Judge then of my relief and delight when
within a few minutes Eileen knocked at my door and said--
"I have come to pay you a morning call if I may."
I began to wish then that Herr Tiel would spend an hour or two in
looking out clothes for me, and as a matter of fact he did. Eileen
explained that he had said he must do some errand in his capacity as
parish minister, but what the mystery-monger was really about, Heaven
knows!
"Now," said I to Eileen, when we were seated and I had lit a cigarette,
"I want to ask you something about this new scheme that we three are
embarked upon."
She began to shake her head at once.
"I am very much in the dark," said she. "Tiel tells me as little as he
tells you."
"You must surely know one thing. What is your own part in it? Why
were you brought into the islands? Such risks are not run for nothing."
"What is a woman's part in such a plan usually?" she asked in a quiet
voice.
I was a little taken aback. It was not exactly pleasant to think
of--in connection with Eileen.
"I believe they sometimes act as decoys," I said bluntly.
She merely nodded.
"Then that is your _role_?"
"I presume so," she said frankly.
"Who are you going to decoy?" I asked, and I felt that my voice was
harsh.
"Ask Herr Tiel," she answered.
"Not that gross brute Ashington surely!"
She shook her head emphatically, and I felt a little relieved.
"You have seen for yourself that he needs no further decoying," she
said.
"Then it must be some even higher game you're to be flown at."
"I wonder!" she said, and smiled a little.
I hated to see her smile.
"I don't like to think of you doing this," I exclaimed suddenly.
"Not even for Germany?" she asked.
I was silenced, but my blood continued to boil at the thought of what
might not be asked of her.
"Would you go to any lengths," I asked abruptly.
"For my country I would, to any lengths!" she answered proudly.
Again I felt rebuked, yet still more savage at the thought.
"You would even become some British Admiral's mistress?" I asked in a
low voice.
Her colour suddenly rose, and for an instant she seemed to start. Then
in rather a cool voice she said--
"Perhaps we are thinking of rather different things."
And with that she changed the subject, nor could I induce her to return
to it. I admit frankly I was a little puzzled. Her reception of my
question, perfectly honestly put, had been curiously unlike the candour
I should have expected in a girl of her strange profession, especially
considering her defiance of all conventionalities in living alone here
with two men, and sitting at this moment in the room of one of them. I
respected her the more for her hint of affronted dignity. Yet I
confess I felt bewildered.
How long we had talked I know not, when at last Tiel appeared, bringing
a very presentable tweed suit, and then they both left me, and I did
the one thing I had so firmly resolved not to do. I discarded my
uniform with what protection it gave me, and made myself liable to be
shot without question or doubt. Yet my only feeling was gladness that
I need no longer stay cooped up in my room while those two spent their
hours together downstairs.
That afternoon, when we were all three together, I asked Tiel for some
definite information regarding his scheme, and we had a long, and I
must say a very interesting, talk. The details of this plan it would
scarcely be safe to put down on paper at present. Or rather, I should
say, the outline of it, for we have scarcely reached the stage of
details yet. It is a bold scheme, as was only to be expected of Tiel,
and necessitated going very thoroughly into the relative naval
strengths of Germany and Britain, so that most of the time for the rest
of the day was taken up with a discussion of facts and figures. And
through it all Eileen sat listening. I wonder if such a talk ever
before had such a charming background?
Now at last I am in my room, writing this narrative up to this very
point. It is long past midnight, but sleep is keeping very far away
from me. The weather has changed to a steady drizzle of rain.
Outside, the night is black as pitch, and mild and windless. It may
partly be this close damp air that drives sleep away, but I know it is
something else as well.
I am actually wondering if I can marry her! She must surrender; that
is certain, for I have willed it, and what a German wills with all his
soul takes place. It must! As to her heart, I feel sure that her
kindness means what a woman's kindness always means--that a man has
only to persevere. But marriage?
I shall never meet another woman like her; that is certain! Yet an
adventuress, a paid agent of the Secret Service, marrying a von
Belke--is it quite conceivable? On the whole I think _no_. But we can
be very happy without that! I never loved a woman so much before--that
is my last word for the night!
II.
THURSDAY.
_Friday morning_ (_very early_).--The events of yesterday and last
night have left me with more to think about than I seem to have wits to
think with. Mein Gott, if I could see daylight through everything!
What is ahead, Heaven knows, but here is what is behind.
Yesterday morning passed as the afternoon before had passed, in further
discussion of naval statistics with Tiel--with a background of Eileen.
Then we had lunch, and soon afterwards Tiel put on an oilskin coat and
went out. A thin fine drizzle still filled the air, drifting in clouds
before a rising wind and blotting out the view of the sea almost
completely. Behind it the ships were doing we knew not what; certainly
they were not firing, but we could see nothing of them at all.
A little later Eileen insisted on putting on a waterproof and going out
too. As the minister's sister she had to visit a farm, she said. I
believed her, of course, though I had ceased to pay much attention to
Tiel's statements as to his movements. I knew that he knew his own
business thoroughly, and I had ceased to mind if he had not the
courtesy to take me into his confidence. After all, if I come safely
out of this business, I am not likely to meet such as Tiel again!
Left to myself, I picked up a book and had been reading for about a
quarter of an hour when I was conscious of a shadow crossing the window
and heard a step on the gravel. Never doubting that it was either
Eileen or Tiel, I still sat reading until I was roused by the sound of
voices in the hall, just outside the parlour door. One I recognised as
our servant's, the other was a stranger's. I dropped my book and
started hastily to my feet, and as I did so I heard the stranger say--
"I tell you I recognise her coat. My good woman, d'ye think I'm blind?
I'm coming in to wait for her, I tell you."
The door opened, and a very large stout gentleman appeared, talking
over his shoulder as he entered.
"When Miss Holland comes in, tell her Mr Craigie is waiting to see
her," said he; and with that he closed the door and became aware of my
presence.
For a moment we looked at one another. My visitor, I saw, had a grey
beard, a large rosy face, and twinkling blue eyes. He looked harmless
enough, but I eyed him very warily, as you can readily believe.
"It's an awful wet day," said he in a most friendly and affable tone.
I agreed that it was detestable.
"It's fine for the crops all the same. The oats is looking very well;
do you not think so?"
I perceived that my friend was an agriculturist, and endeavoured to
humour him.
"They are looking splendid!" I said with enthusiasm.
He sat down, and we exchanged a few more remarks on the weather and the
crops, in the course of which he had filled and lit a pipe and made
himself entirely at home.
"Are you staying with the minister?" he inquired presently.
"I am visiting him," I replied evasively,
"I understand Miss Holland's here too," said he, with an extra twinkle
in his eye.
I knew, of course, that he must mean Eileen, and I must confess that I
was devoured with curiosity.
"She is," I said. "Do you know her?"
"Know her? She was my governess! Has she not told you the joke of how
she left me in the lurch?"
It flashed across my mind that it might seem odd if I were to admit
that "Miss Holland" had said nothing about this mysterious adventure.
"Oh yes, she has told us all about it," I replied with assurance.
Mr Craigie laughed heartily at what was evidently a highly humorous
recollection.
"I was as near being annoyed at the time as I ever was in my life,"
said he. "But, man, I've had some proper laughs over it since."
He suddenly grew a trifle graver.
"Mrs Craigie isn't laughing, though. Between ourselves, it's she
that's sent me on this errand to-day."
He winked and nodded and relit his pipe, while I endeavoured to see a
little light through the extraordinary confusion of ideas which his
remarks had caused in my mind.
"Miss Holland came up to the islands as your governess, I understand,"
I said in as matter-of-fact tone as I could compass.
"We got her through a Mrs Armitage in Kensington," said Mr Craigie.
"It seemed all right--and mind you, I'm not saying it isn't all right
now! Only between you and me, Mr----?"
"Wilson," I said promptly, breathing my thanks to Tiel at the same time.
"You'll be a relation of the minister's too, perhaps?"
"I am on government business," I replied in a suitable tone of grave
mystery.
"Damn it, Mr Wilson," exclaimed my friend with surprising energy,
"every one in the country seems to be on government business
nowadays--except myself! And I've got to pay their salaries! We're
asked in the catechism what's our business in this weary world, and
damn it, I can answer that conundrum now! It's just to pay government
officials their wages, and build a dozen or two new Dreadnoughts, and
send six million peaceable men into the army, and fill a pile of shells
with trinitrol-globule-paralysis, or whatever they call the stuff, and
all this on the rental of an estate which was just keeping me
comfortably in tobacco before this infernal murdering business began!
Do you know what I'd do with that Kaiser if I caught him?"
I looked as interested as possible, and begged for information.
"I'd give him my wife and my income, and see how he liked the mess he's
landed me in!"
Though Mr Craigie had spoken with considerable vehemence, he had not
looked at all fierce, and now his not usually very intellectual face
began to assume a thoughtful expression.
"He's an awful fool, yon man!" he observed.
"Which man?" I inquired.
"Billy," said he, and with a gasp I recognised my Emperor in this brief
epithet. "It's just astounding to me how he never learns that hot
coals will burn his fingers, and water won't run uphill! He's always
trying the silliest things."
His eyes suddenly began to twinkle again, and he asked abruptly--
"Why's the Kaiser like my boots?"
I gave it up at once.
"Because he'll be sold again soon!" he chuckled. "That's one of my
latest, Mr Wilson. I've little to do in these weary times but make
riddles to amuse my girls and think of dodges for getting a rise out of
my wife. I had her beautifully the other day! We've two sons at the
front, you must know, and one of them's called Bob. Well, I got a
letter from him, and suddenly I looked awful grave and cried, 'My God,
Bob's been blown up'--you should have seen Mrs Craigie jump--'by his
Colonel!' said I, and I tell you she was nearly as put about to find
I'd been pulling her leg as if he'd really been blown to smithereens.
Women are funny things."
I fear I scarcely laughed as much as he expected at this extraordinary
instance of woman's obtuseness, but he did not seem to mind. He was
already filling another pipe, and having found an audience, was
evidently settling down to an afternoon's conversation--or rather an
afternoon's monologue, for it was quite clear he was independent of any
assistance from me. I was resolved, however, not to forgo this chance
of learning something more about Eileen.
"You were talking about Miss Holland," I said hurriedly, before he had
time to get under way again.
"Oh, so I was. And that reminds me I've come here just to make some
inquiries about the girl."
Again his blue eyes twinkled furiously.
"Why's Miss Holland like our hall clock?" he inquired. "I may mention
by the way that it's always going slow."
Again I gave it up.
"Because you take her hand and get forward! That was one for my wife's
benefit. It made her fairly sick!"
"Do you mean," I demanded, "that you were actually in the habit of
holding Miss--er--Holland's hand?"
"Oh, no fears. I'm past that game. But Mrs Craigie is a great one for
p's and q's and not being what she calls vulgar, and a joke like that
is a sure draw. I get her every time with my governess riddles.
Here's a good one now--Why's a pretty governess like a----"
In spite of the need for caution, my impatience was fast overcoming me.
"Then you have been sent by Mrs Craigie to make inquiries about Miss
Holland?" I interrupted a trifle brusquely.
Mr Craigie seemed at least to have the merit of not taking offence
readily.
"That's the idea," he agreed. "You see, it's this way: my wife's been
at me ever since our governess bolted, as she calls it. Well now,
what's the good in making inquiries about a thing that's happened and
finished and come to an end? If it was a case of engaging another
governess, that's a different story. I'd take care not to have any
German spies next time!"
"German spies!" I exclaimed, with I hope well-simulated horror; "you
don't mean to suspect Miss Holland of that surely!"
"Oh, 'German Spy' is just a kind of term nowadays for any one you don't
know all about," said Mr Craigie easily. "Every one you haven't seen
before is a German Spy. I spotted five myself in my own parish at the
beginning of the war, and Mrs Craigie wrote straight off to the Naval
Authorities and reported them all."
"And were they actually spies?" I asked a trifle uncomfortably.
"Not one of them!" laughed he. "The nearest approach was a tinker
who'd had German measles! Ha, ha! It's no good my wife reporting any
more spies, and I just reminded her of that whenever she worried me,
and pulled her leg a bit about me and Miss Holland being in the game
together, and so it was all right till she got wind of a girl who was
the image of the disappearing governess being here at the manse as Mr
Burnett's sister, and then there was simply no quieting her till I'd
taken the car and run over to see what there was in the story. Mind
you, I didn't think there was a word of truth in it myself; but when
I'd got here, by Jingo, there I saw Miss Holland's tweed coat in the
hall! Now that's a funny kettle of fish, isn't it?"
I didn't say so, but I had to admit that he was not so very far wrong.
The audacity of the performance was quite worthy of Tiel, but its utter
recklessness seemed not in the least like him. Had the vanishing
governess's employer been any one less easy-going than Mr Craigie, how
readily our whole scheme might have been wrecked! Even as it was, I
saw detection staring me straight in the face. However, I put on as
cool and composed a face as I could.
"I understood that Miss Holland's brother had written to you about it,"
I said brazenly.
"Oh! he is really her brother, is he?" said he, looking at me very
knowingly.
"Certainly."
"He being Burnett and she Holland, eh?"
"You have heard of half-brothers, haven't you?" I inquired with a
condescending smile.
"Oh, I have heard of them," winked Mr Craigie as good-humouredly as
ever; "only I never happened to have heard before of half-sisters
running away from a situation they'd taken without a word of warning,
just whenever their half-brothers whistled."
"Did Mr Burnett whistle?" I inquired, with (I hope) an air of calm and
slightly superior amusement.
"Some one sent her a wire, and I presume it was Mr Burnett," said he.
"By Jingo!"
He stopped suddenly with an air as nearly approaching excitement as was
conceivable in such a gentleman.
"What's the matter?" I asked a trifle anxiously.
"One might get a good one about how to make a governess explode, the
answer being 'Burn it!' By Jove, I must think that out."
Before I could recover from my amazement at this extraordinary
attitude, he had suddenly resumed his shrewd quizzical look.
"Are you an old friend of Mr Burnett?" he inquired.
"Oh, not very," I said carelessly.
"Then perhaps you'll not be offended by my saying that he seems a rum
kind of bird," he said confidentially.
"In what way?"
"Well, coming up here just for a Sunday to preach a sermon, and then
not preaching it, but staying on as if he'd taken a lease of the
manse--him and his twelve-twenty-fourths of a sister!"
"But," I stammered, before I could think what I was saying, "I thought
he did preach last Sunday!"
"Not him! Oh, people are talking a lot about it."
This revelation left me absolutely speechless. Tiel had told me
distinctly and deliberately that he had gone through the farce of
preaching last Sunday--and now I learned that this was a lie. What was
worse, he had assured me that he was causing no comment, and I now was
told that people were "talking." Coming straight on top of my
discovery of his reckless conduct of Eileen's affair, what was I to
think of him?
It was at this black moment that Tiel and Eileen entered the room. My
heart stood still for an instant at the thought that, in their first
surprise, something might be disclosed or some slip made by one of us.
But the next instant I saw that they had learned who was here and were
perfectly prepared.
"How do you do, Mr Craigie!" cried Eileen radiantly.
Mr Craigie seemed distinctly taken aback by the absence of all signs of
guilt or confusion.
"I'm keeping as well as I can, thank you, considering my anxiety," said
he.
"About my sister, sir?" inquired Tiel with his most brazen effrontery,
coming forward and smiling cordially. "Surely you got my letter?"
I started. The man clearly had been at the key-hole during the latter
part of our conversation, or he could hardly have made this remark fit
so well into what I had said.
"I'm afraid I didn't."
"Tut, tut!" said Tiel, with a marvellously well-assumed air of
annoyance. "The local posts seem to have become utterly disorganised.
Apparently they pay no attention to civilian letters at all."
"You're right there," replied Mr Craigie with feeling. "The only use
we are for is just to be taxed."
"What must you think of us?" cried Eileen, whose acting was fully the
equal of Tiel's. "However, my brother will explain everything now."
"Yes," said Tiel; "if Mr Craigie happens to be going--and I'm afraid
we've kept him very late already--I'll tell him all about it as we walk
back to his car."
He gave Mr Craigie a confidential glance as though to indicate that he
had something private for his ear. Our visitor, on his part, was
obviously reluctant to leave an audience of three, especially as it
included his admired governess; but Tiel handled the situation with
quite extraordinary urbanity and skill. He managed to open the door
and all but pushed Mr Craigie out of the room, without a hint of
inhospitality, and solely as though he were seeking only his
convenience. I could scarcely believe that this was the man who had
made at least two fatal mistakes--mistakes, at all events, which had an
ominously fatal appearance.
When Mr Craigie had wished us both a very friendly good-bye and the
door had closed behind him, I turned instantly to Eileen and cried,
perhaps more hotly than politely--
"Well, I have been nicely deceived!"
"By whom?" she asked quietly.
"By you a little and by Tiel very much!"
"How have I deceived you?"
I looked at her a trifle foolishly. After all, I ought to have
realised that she must have had some curious adventure in getting into
the islands. She had never told me she hadn't, and now I had merely
found out what it was.
"You never told me about your governess adventure--or Mr Craigie--or
that you were called Holland," I said rather lamely.
She merely laughed.
"You never asked me about my adventures, or I should have. They were
not very discreditable after all."
"Well, anyhow," I said, "Tiel has deceived me grossly, and I am going
to wring an explanation out of him!"
She laid her hand beseechingly on my arm.
"Don't quarrel with him!" she said earnestly. "It will do no good. We
may think what we like of some of the things he does, but we have got
to trust him!"
"Trust him! But how can I? He told me he preached last Sunday,--I
find it was a lie. He said nobody in the parish suspected
anything,--in consequence of his not preaching, I find they are all
'talking.' He mismanaged your coming here so badly that if old Craigie
weren't next door to an imbecile we should all have been arrested days
ago. How can I trust him now?"
"Say nothing to him now," she said in a low voice. "Wait till
to-morrow! I think he will tell you then very frankly."
There was something so significant and yet beseeching in her voice that
I consented, though not very graciously.
"I can hardly picture Herr Tiel being very 'frank'!" I replied. "But
if you ask me----"
I bowed my obedience, and then catching up her hand pressed it to my
lips, saying--
"I trust you absolutely!"
When I looked up I caught a look in her eye that I could make nothing
of at all. It was beyond question very kind, yet there seemed to be
something sorrowful too. It made her look so ravishing that I think I
would have taken her in my arms there and then, had not Tiel returned
at that moment.
"Well," asked Eileen, "what did you tell Mr Craigie?"
"I said that you were secretly married to Mr Wilson, whose parents
would cut him off without a penny if they suspected the entanglement,
and this was the only plan by which you could spend a few days
together. Of course I swore him to secrecy."
For a moment I hesitated whether to resent this liberty, or to feel a
little pleased, or to be amused. Eileen laughed gaily, and so I
laughed too. And that was the end (so far) of my afternoon adventure.
III.
THURSDAY NIGHT.
I went up to my room early in the evening. Eileen had been very
silent, and about nine o'clock she bade us good-night and left us. To
sit alone with Tiel, feeling as I did and yet bound by a promise not to
upbraid him, was intolerable, and so I left the parlour a few minutes
after she did. As I went down the passage to the back, my way lit only
by the candle I was carrying, I was struck with a sound I had heard in
that house before, only never so loudly. It was the droning of the
wind through the crevices of some door, and the whining melancholy note
in the stillness of that house of divided plotters and confidences
withheld, did nothing to raise my spirits.
When I reached my room I realised what had caused the droning. The
wind had changed to a new quarter, and as another consequence my
chimney was smoking badly and the room was filled with a pungent blue
cloud. It is curious how events arise as consequences of trifling and
utterly different circumstances. I tried opening my door and then my
window, but still the fire smoked and the cloud refused to disperse.
Then I had an inspiration. I have mentioned a large cupboard. It was
so large as almost to be a minute room, and I remembered that it had a
skylight in its sloping roof. I opened this, and as the room at once
began to clear, I left it open.
And then I paced the floor and smoked and thought. What was to be made
of these very disquieting events? Clearly Tiel was either a much less
capable and clever man than he was reputed--a bit of a fraud in
fact--or else he was carrying his fondness for mystery and for suddenly
springing brilliant surprises, like conjuring tricks, upon people, to
the most extreme lengths. If he were really carrying out a cunning
deliberate policy in not preaching last Sunday, good and well, but it
was intolerable that he should have deceived me about it. It seemed
quite a feasible theory to suppose that he had got out of conducting
the service on some excuse in order that he might be asked to stay
longer and preach next Sunday instead. But then he had deliberately
told me he had preached, and that the people had been so pleased that
they had invited him to preach again. It sounded like a schoolboy's
boastfulness!
Of course if he were the sort of man who would (like myself) have drawn
the line at conducting a bogus religious service, I could quite well
understand his getting out of it somehow. But when I remembered his
tale of the murder of the real Mr Burnett, I dismissed that hypothesis.
Besides, why deceive me in any case? I daresay I should have felt a
little anxious as to the result if he had evaded the duty he had
professed to come up and perform, but would he care twopence about
that? I did not believe it.
And then his method of getting Eileen into the islands, though
ingenious enough (if not very original), had been marred by the most
inconceivable recklessness. Surely some better scheme could have been
devised for getting her out of the Craigies' house than a sudden flight
without a word of explanation--and a flight, moreover, to another house
in the same island where gossip would certainly spread in the course of
a very few days. Of course Mr Craigie's extraordinary character gave
the scheme a chance it never deserved, but was Tiel really so
diabolically clever that he actually counted on that? How could he
have known so much of Craigie's character? Indeed, that explanation
was inconceivable.
And then again, why had Eileen consented to such a wild plan? That
neither of them should have realised its drawbacks seemed quite
extraordinary. There must be some deep cunning about it that escaped
me altogether. If it were not so, we were lost indeed! And so I
resolved to believe that there was more wisdom in the scheme than I
realised, and simply leave it at that.
Thereupon I sat down and wrote for an hour or two to keep me from
thinking further on the subject, and at last about midnight I resolved
to go to bed. The want of fresh air had been troubling me greatly, and
it struck me that a safe way of getting a little would be to put my
head through the open skylight for a few minutes. It was quite dark in
the cupboard, so that no light could escape; and I brought a chair
along, stood on it, and looked out, with my head projecting from the
midst of the sloping slates, and a beautiful cool breeze refreshing my
face.
So cool was the wind that there was evidently north in it, and this was
confirmed by the sky, which literally blazed with stars. I could see
dimly but pretty distinctly the outbuildings at the back of the house,
and the road that led to the highway, and the dark rim of hills beyond.
Suddenly I heard the back door gently open, and still as I had stood on
my chair before, I became like a statue now. In a moment the figure of
Tiel appeared, and from a flash of light I saw that he carried his
electric torch. He walked slowly towards the highroad till he came to
a low wall that divided the fields at the side, and then from behind
the wall up jumped the form of a man, illuminated for an instant by a
flash from the torch, and then just distinguishable in the gloom.
I held my breath and waited for the crack of a pistol-shot, gently
withdrawing my head a little, and prepared to rush down and take part
in the fray. But there was not a sound save a low murmur of voices,
far too distant and too hushed for me to catch a syllable of what they
were saying. And then after two or three minutes I saw Tiel turn and
start to stroll back again. But at that moment my observations ceased,
for I stepped hastily down from my chair and stood breathlessly waiting
for him to run up to my room.
He was quiet almost as a mouse. I had not heard him pass through the
house as he went out, and I barely heard a sound now as he returned.
But I heard enough to know that he had gone off to bed, and did not
propose to pay me a visit.
"What in Heaven's name did it mean?" I asked myself.
A dozen wild and alarming theories flashed through my mind, and then at
last I saw a ray of comfort. Perhaps this was only a rendezvous with
Ashington, or some subordinate in his pay. It was not a very brilliant
ray, for the more I thought over it, the more unlikely it seemed that a
rendezvous should take place at that spot and in that inconvenient
fashion, when there was nothing to prevent Ashington or his emissary
from entering the house by the front door and holding their
conversation in the parlour. However, it seemed absolutely the only
solution, short of supposing that the house was watched, and so I
accepted it for what it was worth in the meantime, and turned into bed.
My sleep was very broken, and in the early morning I felt so wide
awake, and my thoughts were so restlessly busy, that I jumped up and
resolved to have another peep out of the skylight. Very quietly I
climbed on the chair and put my head through again. There was the man,
pacing slowly away from me, from the wall towards the highroad! I
studied his back closely, and of two things I felt certain: he was not
a sailor of any sort--officer or bluejacket--and yet he walked like a
drilled man. A tall, square-shouldered fellow, in dark plain clothes,
who walks with a short step and a stiff back--what does that suggest?
A policeman of some sort--constable or detective, no doubt about that!
At the road he turned, evidently to stroll back again, and down went my
head, I did not venture to look out again, nor was there any need. I
dressed quickly, and this time put on my uniform. This precaution
seemed urgently--and ominously--called for! And then I slipped
downstairs, went to the front hall, and up the other stairs, and
quietly called "Tiel!" For I confess I was not disposed to sit for two
or three hours waiting for information.
At my second cry he appeared at his bedroom door, prompt as usual.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Who did you speak to last night?" I asked point-blank.
He looked at me for an instant and then smiled.
"Good heavens, it wasn't you, was it?" he inquired.
"Me!" I exclaimed.
"I wondered how you knew otherwise."
I told him briefly.
"And now tell me exactly what happened!" I demanded.
"Certainly," said he quietly. "I went out, as I often do last thing at
night, to see that the coast is clear, and this time I found it wasn't.
A man jumped up from behind the wall just as you saw."
"Who was he?"
"I can only suspect. I saw him for an instant by the light of my
torch, and then it seemed less suspicious to put it out."
"I don't see that," I said.
"I am a cautious man," smiled Tiel, as easily as though the incident
had not been of life and death importance.
"And what did he say to you?" I demanded impatiently.
"I spoke to him and asked him what he was doing there."
"What did he say to that?"
"I gave him no chance to answer--because, if the answer was what I
feared, he wouldn't make it. I simply told him he would catch cold if
he sat there on the grass, and gave him some details about my own
misfortune in getting rheumatism through sleeping in damp sheets."
"I see," I said; "you simply tried to bluff him by behaving like an
ordinary simple-minded honest clergyman?"
Tiel nodded.
"It was the only thing to do--unless I had shot him there and then.
And there might have been more men for all I knew."
"Well," I said, "I can tell you something more about that man. He is
patrolling the road at the back at this very moment."
Tiel looked grave enough now.
"It looks as if the house were being watched," he said rather slowly.
"Looks? It _is_ being watched!"
He thought for a moment.
"Evidently they only suspect so far. They can know nothing, or they
wouldn't be content with merely watching. Thank you for telling me.
We'll talk about it later."
Still cool as a cucumber he re-entered his room, and I returned to my
own.
What can be done? Nothing! I can only sit and wait and keep myself
from worrying by writing. I have made up my fire and my door is
locked, so that this manuscript will be in flames before any one can
enter, if it comes to the worst. Recalling the words of Tiel a few
days ago, I shiver a little to think of what is ahead. Suspicion has
_begun_!
IV.
FRIDAY.
This is written under very different circumstances--and in a different
place. My last words were written with my eyes shut; these are written
with them open, but I shall simply tell what happened as calmly as I
can. Let the events speak; I shall make no comment in the meanwhile.
On that Friday morning our breakfast was converted into a council of
war. We all three discussed the situation gravely and frankly. I felt
tempted to say some very bitter words to Tiel, for it seemed to me
quite obvious that it was simply his gross mismanagement which had
brought us to the edge of this precipice; but I am glad now I
refrained. I was at no pains, however, to be over-polite.
"There is nothing to be done in the meanwhile, I'm afraid," said he.
This coolness seemed to me all very well in its proper season, but not
at present.
"Yes, there is," I said urgently. "We might get out of this house and
look for some other refuge!"
He shook his head.
"Not by daylight, if it is being watched."
"Besides," said Eileen, "this is the day we have been waiting for. We
don't want to be far away, do we?"
"Personally," I said, "it seems to me that as I cannot be where I ought
to be" (and here I looked at Tiel somewhat bitterly), "with my brave
comrades in their attack on our enemies, I should much prefer to make
for a safer place than this--if one can be found."
"It can't," said Tiel briefly.
And that indeed became more and more obvious the longer we talked it
over. Had our house stood in the midst of a wood, or had a kindly fog
blown out of the North Sea, we might have made a move. As it was, I
had to agree that it would be sheer folly, before nightfall anyhow; and
there was nothing for it but waiting.
To add to the painfulness of this ordeal, I found myself obliged to
remain in my room, now that I had resumed my uniform. This time it did
not need Tiel to bid me take this precaution. In fact, I was amazed to
hear him suggesting that I would be just as safe in the parlour. At
the time I naturally failed altogether to understand this departure
from his usual caution, and I asked him sarcastically if he wished to
precipitate a catastrophe.
"We have still a good deal to discuss," said he.
"I thought there was nothing more to be said."
"I mean in connection with the other scheme."
"The devil may take the other scheme!" said I, "anyhow till we escape
from this trap. What is the good in planning ahead, with the house
watched night and day?"
"We only suspect it is watched," said he calmly.
"Suspect!" I cried. "We are not idiots, and why should we pretend to
be?"
And so I went up to my room and spent the most miserable and restless
day of my life. How slowly the hours passed, no words of mine can give
the faintest idea. In my present state of mind writing was impossible,
and I tried to distract myself by reading novels; but they were English
novels, and every word in them seemed to gall me. I implored Eileen to
come and keep me company. She came up once for a little, but the devil
seemed to have possessed her, for I felt no sympathy coming from her at
all; and when at last I tried to be a little affectionate she first
repulsed me, saying it was no time for that, and then she left me.
With baffled love added to acute anxiety, you can picture my condition!
For the first part of that horrible day I kept listening for some sign
of the police, and now and then looking out from the skylight at the
back, but the watcher was no longer visible, and not a fresh step or
voice was to be heard in the house. My door stood locked, my fire was
blazing, and my papers lay ready to be consumed, and at moments I
positively longed to see them blazing and myself arrested, and get it
over, yet nothing happened.
In the afternoon the direction of my thoughts began to change as the
hour approached when the fleet should sail and my country reap the
reward of the enterprise and fidelity which I felt conscious I had
shown, and the sacrifice which I feared I should have to make. I began
to make brief visits to the parlour to look out of the window and see
if I could see any signs of movement in the Armada. And then for the
second time I saw Tiel in a genial cheerful humour, and this time there
was no doubt of the cause. He too was in a state of tension, and his
mind, like mine, was running on the coming drama. In fact, as the
afternoon wore on, his thoughts were so entirely wrapped up in this
that he frankly talked of nothing else. Was I sure we should have at
least four submarines? he asked me; and would they be brought well in
and take the risk? Indeed, I never heard him ask so many questions, or
appear so pleased as he did when I reassured him on all these points.
As for Eileen, she was quite as excited as either of us, and when Tiel
was not asking me questions, she was; until once again prudence drove
me back to my room. On one of my visits she gave us some tea, but that
is the only meal I remember any of us eating between our early and
hurried lunch and the evening when the crash came.
The one thing I looked for as I gazed out of that window was the rising
of smoke from the battle-fleet, and at last I saw it. Stream after
stream, black or grey, gradually mounted, first from one leviathan and
then from another, till the air was darkened hundreds of feet above
them, and if our flotilla were in such a position that they could look
for this sign, they must have seen it. This time I returned to my room
with a heart a little lightened.
"I have done my duty," I said to myself, "come what may of it!"
And I do not think that any impartial reader will deny that, so far as
my own share of this enterprise was concerned, I had done my very
utmost to make it succeed.
The next time I came down my spirits rose higher still, and for the
moment I quite forgot the danger in which I stood. The light cruisers,
the advance-guard of the fleet, were beginning to move! This time when
I went back to my room I forced myself to read two whole chapters of a
futile novel before I again took off the lid and peeped in to see how
the stew was cooking. The instant I had finished the second chapter I
leapt up and opened the door--and then I stood stock-still and
listened. A distant sound of voices reached me, and a laugh rang out
that was certainly neither Tiel's nor Eileen's.
I locked my door, slipped back again, and prepared to burn my papers;
but though I stood over the fire for minute after minute, there was no
sound of approaching steps. Very quietly I opened the door and
listened once more, and still I heard voices. And thus I lingered and
hesitated for more than an hour. By this time the attack had probably
been made, and I could stand the suspense no longer, so I went
recklessly downstairs, strode along the passage, and opened the parlour
door.
Nothing will ever efface the memory of the scene that met my eyes.
Tiel, Eileen, and Ashington sat there, the two men each with a
whisky-and-soda, and all three seemingly in the most extraordinarily
high spirits. It was Ashington's face and voice that suddenly rent the
veil from before my eyes. Instead of the morose and surly individual I
had met before, he sat there the incarnation of the jovial sailor. He
was raising his glass to his lips, and as I entered I heard the words--
"Here's to you again, Robin!"
What had happened I did not clearly grasp in that first instant, but I
_felt_ I was betrayed. My hand went straight to my revolver pocket,
but before I could seize it, Tiel, who sat nearest, leapt up, grasped
my wrist, and with the shock of his charge drove me down into a chair.
It was done so suddenly that I could not possibly have resisted. Then
with a movement like a conjurer he picked the revolver out of my
pocket, and said in his infernally cool calm way--
"Please consider yourself a prisoner of war, Mr Belke."
Even then I had not grasped the whole truth.
"A prisoner of war!" I exclaimed. "And what the devil are you, Herr
Tiel? A traitor?"
"You have got my name a little wrong," said he, with that icy smile of
his. "I am Commander Blacklock of the British Navy, so you can
surrender either to me or to Captain Phipps, whichever you choose."
"Phipps!" I gasped, for I remembered that as the name of a member of
Jellicoe's staff.
"That's me, old man," said the gross person with insufferable
familiarity. "The Honourable Thomas Bainbridge Ashington would have a
fit if he looked in the glass and saw this mug!"
"Then I understand I am betrayed?" I asked as calmly as I could.
"You're nabbed," said Captain Phipps, with brutal British slang, "and
let me tell you that's better than being dead, which you would have
been if you'd rejoined your boat."
I could not quite control my feelings.
"What has happened?" I cried.
"We've bagged the whole four--just at the very spot on the chart which
you and I arranged!" chuckled the great brute.
(At this point Lieutenant von Belke's comments become a little too acid
for publication, and it has been considered advisable that the
narrative should be finished by the Editor.)