On returning to his headquarters, some eight miles west of the town,
Pariset asked permission of his commandant to convey Kenneth to Ostend.
He met with a peremptory refusal; he could not be spared.
"You'll have to go by train," he said to Kenneth. "It will take you a
long time, the railway is so congested with troops and refugees. Must
you go?"
"What else can I do?"
"Well, we're short of men. I'd like to keep you. If I get you a sort
of appointment, will you stay?"
"Rather! It might be months before I got a job at home."
"Then I'll see the commandant again and try to arrange it."
When he returned half-an-hour later, Kenneth knew by his expression that
he had been successful.
"It was easier than I expected," he said. "He was good enough to say
that you're just the man we want. He told me, too, that we have already
accepted the services of two English airmen who have volunteered, so
everything is quite in order. We'll go into Liege and get you a suit of
overalls. I am delighted."
After the necessary purchases had been made, they went into the Hotel de
l'Europe for dinner. The dining-room was crowded, and Kenneth, as he
entered, glanced somewhat confusedly around the tables. Suddenly he
heard his name, uttered in a low tone, and turning round in surprise,
saw Granger beckoning him to a small table at which he sat alone.
"There's room here for you both, at a squeeze," he said. "I'm glad to
see you again."
"It's all right, then?" asked Kenneth as they sat down.
"Oh yes! They got a reassuring telegram from my chief this morning.
What's more, I am to stay in Liege for the present; I am lent to the
Belgians."
"That's capital. I have lent myself."
"'Loan oft loses both itself and friend.' I hope it won't be so in our
case! Well, what have you been doing?"
Kenneth plunged into an account of the affair at the mill. Granger
interrupted him when the waiter came for orders, and again when the man
returned with the dishes. At the conclusion of the story, which Kenneth
gave only in outline, Granger said:
"Hellwig is in Liege. My own stay here is not unconnected with him. He
is one of the most resourceful, ingenious and dangerous of the thousands
of spies in the German service.... They were all County Kerry men, and
when they stood at attention you might have heard a pin drop."
His companions stared at him in amazement. His last sentence,
apparently unconnected with what had gone before, had been spoken
without change of voice or expression, and he imperturbably sucked his
lemon squash through a straw before he went on:
"He has a marvellous command of languages; is Protean in his disguises;
and in nimbleness of wit outdoes any other German I have ever come
across.... They mixed the salad with engine oil, and when Lady Barbara
took a mouthful of it, she swallowed it without blinking, and remarked
to me, 'The chef is a perfect marvel in inventing new flavours.' ...
Waiter!"
"Monsieur?" said the waiter, smiling and bowing.
"Another lemon squash."
When the waiter had gone, Granger said:
"I must have that fellow arrested."
"What on earth for?" asked Pariset.
"And what are you driving at, with your County Kerries and your Lady
Barbaras?" said Kenneth.
"The waiter has been hovering round a little more closely than the most
officious garcon need do. You didn't notice him, perhaps? He speaks
pretty good French, with a strong Belgian accent. Did you see what
happened when I called him?"
"What was it?" asked Kenneth.
"I put something of the parade ground tone into my voice, and the fellow
brought his heels together in the correct German style. One could
almost hear the click. Well greased as his hair is, you can see it
trying to rise _en brosse_, and I caught him just now twirling an
invisible moustache."
"A spy?"
"Unless my instinct and my judgment are equally at fault. But here he
comes; don't be surprised if I break off into irrelevancies; answer in
kind."
The waiter placed the glass on the table, and withdrew, to attend to a
man at the next table.
"As I was saying," Granger went on, "Hellwig is here, in what shape I
don't know, but I hope to catch him yet. Your friend Finkelstein, by
the way, has been arrested in Cologne and thrown into prison."
"Good heavens! Not through me, I hope," said Kenneth.
"On a charge of espionage, at any rate. I have no doubt he owes that to
... Yes, it was a very dark night, and he didn't recognise me until I
was as near to him as I am to you. Then ... he owes it to Hellwig."
"But what can his motive be? He's his cousin."
"The nearer the bone ... Finkelstein has a daughter, I believe?"
"Yes."
"Well, what more natural than that Hellwig should be appointed trustee
to his cousin's daughter and manager of the business?"
"I did suspect that he wants to marry Frieda."
"Ah! Motive enough! ... Waiter!"
The others watched the man. His manner was a strange compound of two
servilities--the waiter's and the German private's.
"Monsieur?"
"Bring coffee."
The waiter departed.
"I must certainly have him arrested," said Granger. "So you see, my
dear fellow, that if I manage to lay Hellwig by the heels I shall
perhaps be able to make you some return for what I owe you."
"But that won't release Max Finkelstein."
"I confess I was at that moment thinking of the daughter," said Granger
with a whimsical look at Kenneth. Pariset glanced at his friend and
smiled.
"The idea of her marrying that cur!" said Kenneth.
"It won't bear thinking of, will it?" said Granger. "That fellow is
rather long with the coffee."
They waited, discussing the probable course of the war. After a while
Granger summoned the head waiter.
"Our waiter has been over long fetching our coffee," he said. "Will you
stir him up?"
In a minute or two the head waiter returned, carrying the coffee
himself.
"Pardon, messieurs," he said. "Gustave was suddenly taken sick, and is
not able to serve at present."
"I have lost this trick," said Granger ruefully, when they were again
alone. "While I had my eye on the German, he evidently had his eye on
me. And for once the German was the quicker to act. Well, we all have
our ups and downs--I might have said our exits and our entrances: exit
spy, enter staff-officer, who is looking for you, Monsieur Pariset, if I
am not mistaken."
A Belgian captain was threading his way across the room, looking quickly
from table to table, here and there acknowledging or returning a
greeting, but briefly, in the manner of one preoccupied. His glance
suddenly falling on Pariset, he smiled, and came directly towards him.
"I heard that you were here," he said. "Have you finished?"
"Yes."
"Then give me a minute privately."
His eyes rested for a moment on Kenneth and Granger, whom he did not
know.
"Certainly," said Pariset. "Let me introduce my friends."
The introduction made, the officer's manner changed.
"Let us all go into the smoking-room together," he said. "The matter
I've to speak about need be no secret among us four."
"You'll excuse me," said Granger, whose tact never failed. "I have one
or two things to attend to; I hope I may have the pleasure some other
time."
He left the others, and they made their way to the smoking-room.