Archibald Cator's bony face was grave, serious, sphinx-like. His
personality was strange and striking.
He had detected in an instant the sudden alarm which his question had
aroused within the mind of the man before him, but, pretending not to
observe it, he added with a pleasant air:
"You will, of course, forgive anything which may appear to be an
impertinent cross-examination, Mr. Chisholm. Both of us are alike
working in the interests of our country, and certain facts which I have
recently unearthed are, to say the least, extremely curious. They even
constitute a great danger. Do you happen to remember any one among your
acquaintances named Lennox--Major Mayne Lennox?"
Mayne Lennox! Mention of that name brought before Chisholm's eyes a
grim and ghastly vision of the past--a past which he had fondly believed
was long ago dead and buried. There arose the face that had haunted him
so continuously, that white countenance which appeared to him in his
dreams and haunted him even in the moments of his greatest triumphs,
social and political.
The shabbily attired man patiently awaited an answer, his eyes fixed
upon the man before him.
"Yes," answered Dudley at last, with a strenuous effort to calm the
tumultuous beating of his heart.
"I was once acquainted with a man of that name."
His visitor slowly changed his position, and a strange half-smile played
about the corners of his mouth, as though that admission was the sum of
his desire.
"May I ask under what circumstances you met this person?" he inquired,
adding: "I am not asking through any idle motive of curiosity, but in
order to complete a series of inquiries I have in hand, it is necessary
for certain points to be absolutely clear."
"We met at a card-party in a friend's rooms," Dudley said. "I saw
something of him at Hastings, where he was spending the summer.
Afterwards, I believe, he went abroad. But we have not met for years."
"For how many years?"
"Oh, seven, or perhaps eight! I really could not say exactly."
"Are you certain that Mayne Lennox went abroad?" inquired Cator as
though suddenly interested.
"Yes. He told me that he had lived on the Continent for a great many
years, mostly in Italy, I think. He often spoke of a villa he had
outside Perugia, and I presume that he returned there."
"Ah, exactly!" said his visitor, again twisting his moustache, as was
his habit when deep in thought. "And you have not seen him for some
years?"
"No. But is it regarding Major Lennox that you are making inquiries?
He surely had no political connections?"
"My inquiries concern him indirectly," admitted the man with the hollow
cheeks. "I am seeking to discover him."
"Surely that will not be difficult. A retired officer is usually found
with the utmost ease."
"Yes. But from inquiries I have already made I have come to the
conclusion that he returned to England again. If so, my difficulty
increases." Dudley was silent for some moments. Was this man telling
the truth? he wondered.
"May I ask what is your object in discovering him?" he inquired, feeling
that as he had now answered Cator's questions he might be permitted to
ask some himself.
"I desire to ascertain from him certain facts which will elucidate what
remains at present a profound mystery," the other replied. "Indeed, a
statement by him will place in our hands a weapon by which we can thwart
certain of the Powers who are launching a powerful combination against
us."
Cator, who occupied the post that Colonel Murray-Kerr had once held, was
himself a skilled diplomatist. As the confusion caused in the
Under-Secretary's mind at his first question had shown how unlikely it
was that he would get a clear statement of the truth, he proceeded to
work for the information he wanted, and to work in a cautious and
indirect manner. Chisholm, recollecting the confidential document which
had passed through his hands some time before, and which had aroused his
suspicions, said:
"I think I know the combination to which you refer. Something regarding
it leaked out to one of the newspapers a few weeks ago, and a question
was asked in the House."
Cator laughed.
"Yes," he said, "a question to which you gave a very neat, but
altogether unintelligible reply--eh? They were waiting that reply of
yours in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a good deal of
anxiety, I can tell you. It was telephoned to Paris before you had
delivered it."
"Ah! copied from one of the sheets of replies given out to the Press
Gallery, I expect," observed the Under-Secretary. "But I had no idea
that our friends across the Channel were so watchful of my utterances."
"Oh, aren't they? They are watchful of your movements, too," replied
the Secret Agent of Her Majesty's Foreign Office. "Recollect, Mr.
Chisholm, you as Parliamentary Under-Secretary are in the confidence of
the Government, and frequently possess documents and information which
to our enemies would be priceless. If I may be permitted to say so, you
should be constantly on the alert against any of your papers falling
into undesirable hands."
"But surely none have?" Dudley gasped in alarm.
"None have, to my knowledge," his visitor replied.
"But information is gained by spies in a variety of ways. Perhaps few
know better than myself the perfection of the secret service system of
certain Powers who are our antagonists. Few diplomatic secrets are safe
from them."
"And few of the secrets of our rivals are safe from you, Captain Cator--
if all I've heard be true," observed Chisholm, smiling.
"Ah!" the other laughed; "I believe I'm credited with performing all
sorts of miracles in the way of espionage. I fear I possess a
reputation which I in no way desire. But," he added, "can you tell me
nothing more of this man Lennox--of his antecedents, I mean?"
"Nothing. I know absolutely nothing of his people."
"Can you direct me to the mutual friend at whose rooms you met him, for
he might possibly be able to tell us his whereabouts?"
"It was a man in the Worcestershire Regiment; he's out in Uganda now.
Perhaps the War Office knows, for doubtless he draws his pension,"
Chisholm suggested.
"No. That source of information has already been tried, but in vain."
The visitor thrust his ungloved hands into the pockets of his shabby
overcoat, stretched out his legs, and fixed his keen eyes upon the
rising statesman, to interview whom he had travelled post-haste half
across Europe.
"If I knew more of the character of your inquiries and the point towards
which they are directed I might possibly be able to render you further
assistance," Dudley said after a short pause, hoping to obtain some
information from the man who, as he was well aware, so completely
possessed the confidence of the controller of England's destinies.
"Well," said Cator, after some hesitation, "the matter forms a very
tangled and complicated problem. By sheer chance I discovered, by means
of a document which was copied in a certain _Chancellerie_ and found its
way to me in secret a short time ago, that a movement was afoot in a
most unexpected direction to counter-balance Britain's power on the sea,
and oust us from China as a preliminary to a great and terrific war.
The document contained extracts of confidential correspondence which had
passed between the Foreign Ministers of the two nations implicated, and
showed that the details of the conspiracy were arranged with such an
exactitude and forethought that by certain means--which were actually
given in one of the extracts in question, a grave Parliamentary crisis
would be created in England, of which the Powers intended to take
immediate advantage in order the better to aim their blow at British
supremacy."
Archibald Cator paused and glanced behind him half suspiciously, as if
to make certain that the door was closed, while Chisholm sat erect,
immovable, as though turned to stone. What his visitor had told him,
confirmed the horrible suspicion which had crept upon him some weeks
ago.
"Yes. It was a very neat and very pretty scheme, all of it," went on
the man with the hollow cheeks, giving vent to a short, dry laugh.
"During my career I have known many schemes and intrigues with the same
object, but never has one been formed with such open audacity, such cool
forethought, and such clever ingenuity as the present."
"Then it still exists?" exclaimed Chisholm quickly.
"Most certainly. My present object is to expose and destroy it,"
answered the confidential agent. "That it has the support of two
monarchs of known antipathy towards England is plain enough, but our
would-be enemies have no idea that the details of their plot are already
in my possession, nor that yesterday I placed the whole of them before
the chief. By to-morrow every British Embassy in Europe will be in
possession of a cypher despatch from his lordship warning Ministers of
the intrigue in progress. The messengers left Charing Cross last night
carrying confidential instructions to all the capitals."
"And especially to Vienna, I presume?"
"Yes, especially to Vienna," Cator said, adding, "That, I suppose, you
guessed from the tenor of the confidential report from the Austrian
capital which passed through your hands a short time back. Do you
recollect that your answer to that embarrassing question in the House
was supplied to you after a special meeting of the Cabinet?"
"I recollect that was so."
"Then perhaps it may interest you to know that I myself drafted the
answer and suggested to the F.O. that it should be given exactly as I
had written, it, in order to mislead those who were so ingeniously
trying to undermine our prestige. It was our counter-stroke of
diplomacy."
This statement of Cator's was a revelation. He had been under the
impression that the public reply to the Opposition was the composition
of the Foreign Secretary himself.
"Really," he said, "that is most interesting. I had not the least idea
that you were responsible for that enigmatical answer. I must
congratulate you. It was certainly extremely clever."
The captain smiled, as though gratified by the other's compliment. As
he sat there, a wan and very unimpressive figure, none would have
believed him to be the great confidential agent who, if the truth were
told, was the Foreign Secretary's trusted adviser upon the more delicate
matters of European policy. This man with the muddy trousers and frayed
suit was actually the intimate friend of princes; he knew reigning
Sovereigns personally, had diplomatic Europe at his fingers' ends, and
had often been the means of shaping the policy to be employed by England
in Europe.
"I must not conceal from you the fact that the present situation is
extremely critical," the secret agent went on. "When Parliament
reassembles you will find that a strenuous attempt will be made by the
Opposition to force your hand. It is part of the game. All replies
must be carefully guarded--most carefully."
"That I quite understand."
"It was certainly most fortunate for us that I, quite by accident,
dropped upon the conspiracy," the other went on. "The man through whom
I obtained the copy of the document was a person well-known to us. He
was in a high position in his own government, but as his expenditure
greatly exceeded his income, the bank drafts that mysteriously found
their way into his pocket were most acceptable."
"You speak in the past tense. Why?"
"Because unfortunately the person in question fell into disgrace a few
weeks ago, and was called upon to resign. Hence, our channel of
information is, just at the moment when it would be so highly useful,
suddenly closed."
"Fortunate that it was not closed before you could obtain the document
which gave you the clue to what was really taking place," remarked the
Under-Secretary. "Cannot you tell me more regarding the plot? From
which _Chancellerie_ did the document emanate?"
"Ah, I regret that at this juncture I am not at liberty to say! The
matter is still in the most confidential stage. The slightest betrayal
of our knowledge may result in disaster. It is the chief's policy to
retain the facts we have gathered and act upon them as soon as the
inquiry is complete. For the past three weeks all my endeavours and
those of my staff have been directed towards unravelling the mystery
presented by the document I have mentioned. In every capital active
searches have been made, copies of correspondence secured, prominent
statesmen sounded as to their views, and photographs taken of certain
letters and plans, all of which go to show the deep conspiracy that is
in progress, with the object of striking a staggering blow at us. Yet,
strangest of all, there is mention of a matter which is hinted at so
vaguely that up to the present I have been unable to form any theory as
to what it really is. To put it plainly," he added, with his eyes fixed
upon Chisholm's face, "in certain parts of the correspondence the name
of Mayne Lennox is mentioned in connection with your own."
"In connection with my own!" gasped Dudley, his face blanching again in
an instant. "What statements are made?"
"Nothing is stated definitely," replied his shabby visitor. "There are
only vague hints."
"Of what?"
"Of the existence of something that I have up to the present failed to
discover."
Dudley Chisholm breathed more freely, but beneath that cold, keen gaze
of the man of secrets his eyes wavered. Nevertheless, the fact that
Cator was still in ignorance of the truth reassured him, and in an
instant he regained his self-possession.
"Curious that I should be mentioned in the same breath, as it were, with
a man whom I know so very slightly--very curious," he observed, as
though reflecting.
"It was because of this that I have sought you here to-night," the
confidential agent explained. "I must find this man Lennox, for he
alone can throw some light upon the strange hints contained in two of
the letters. Then, as soon as we know the truth, the chief will act
swiftly and fearlessly to expose and overthrow the dastardly plot.
Until all the facts are quite plain it is impossible to move, for in
this affair the game of bluff will avail nothing. We must be absolutely
certain of our ground before making any attack. Then the whole of
Europe will stand aghast, and England will awake one morning to discover
how she has been within an ace of disaster."
"But tell me more of this mention of myself in the confidential
correspondence of our enemies," Dudley urged. "What you have told me
has aroused my curiosity."
"I have told you all that there is to tell at this stage," Cator
replied. "It is most unfortunate that you can give me absolutely no
information regarding this man; but I suppose I must seek for it
elsewhere. He must be found and questioned, for the allegations are
extremely grave, and the situation the most critical I have known in all
my diplomatic career."
"What are the allegations? I thought I understood you that there were
only vague hints?" exclaimed Chisholm in suspicion.
"In some letters the hints are vague, but in one there is a distinct and
serious charge."
"Of what?"
"Of a certain matter which, together with the name of the Ministry from
which the document was secured, must remain for the present a secret."
"If the crisis is so very serious I think I, as Parliamentary
Under-Secretary, have a right to know," protested Dudley.
"No. I much regret my inability to reply to your questions, Mr.
Chisholm," his visitor answered. "It is, moreover, not my habit to make
any statement until an inquiry is concluded, and not even then if the
chief imposes silence upon me, as he has done in the present case.
Remember that I am in the public service, just as you are. All that has
passed between us to-night has passed in the strictest confidence. Any
communication made by the chief through you in the House will, in the
nation's interest, be of a kind to mislead and mystify our enemies."
"But the mention of my own name in these copied letters!" observed the
Under-Secretary. "What you have told has only whetted my appetite for
further information. I really can't understand it."
"No, nor can I," replied Archibald Cator frankly.
And he certainly spoke the honest truth, even though he knew a good deal
more than he had thought it wise to admit.