A CHESS OPENING
"If your Excellency makes that move I must mate in three moves."
His Excellency's long white fingers were fluttering indecisively above
the bishop and were about to close upon it, when I was guilty of so
presumptuous a breach of etiquette as to warn him.
He was appropriately shocked. He fidgeted, frowned at me, and then
smiled. It was one of those indulgent smiles with which a great man is
wont to favour a young woman in his employment.
"Really, I don't think so," he replied; and having been warned by one
whose counsel he could not condescend to rank very high, he did what
most men would do under the circumstances. He made the move out of
doggedness.
I smiled, taking care that he should see it.
The mate was perfectly apparent, but I was in no hurry to move. I had
much more in view just then than the mere winning of the game. The
time had arrived when I thought the Minister and I ought to come to an
understanding.
"Your Excellency does not set enough store by my advice," I said
slowly. "But there are reasons this evening. Your thoughts are not on
the game."
"Really, Miss Gilmore! I am sorry if I have appeared preoccupied." He
accompanied the apology with a graceful, deprecatory wave of his white
hand. He was very proud of the whiteness of his hands and the grace of
many of his gestures. He studied such things.
"I am not surprised," I said. "The solution of the mystery of those
lost ducal jewels must naturally be disturbing."
His involuntary start was sufficiently energetic to shake the table on
which the board was placed, and to disturb one or two of the pieces.
He looked intently at me, and during the stare I put the pieces upon
their squares with unnecessary deliberation. Then I lifted my eyes and
returned his look with one equally intent.
Some of the family jewels of the Duke Ladislas of Kremnitz had been
stolen a few days before, and the theft had completely baffled the
officials of the Government from His Excellency, General von Erlanger,
downwards. It had been kept absolutely secret, but--well, I had made
it my business to know things.
"It has been a very awkward affair," I added, when he did not speak.
"Shall we resume our game, Miss Gilmore?" The tone was stiff. He
intended me to understand that such matters were not for me to discuss.
I made the first move toward the mate and then said--
"Chess is a very tell-tale game, your Excellency. The theft occurred
seven days ago, and for six of them you have been so preoccupied that I
have won every game. To-night you have been alternately smiling and
depressed; it is an easy inference, therefore, that the solution of the
mystery is even more troublesome than the mystery itself. In point of
fact, I was sure it would be."
Instead of studying his move, he began to fidget again; and presently
looked across the board at me with another of his condescending,
patronizing smiles.
"The loss you may have heard spoken of, but you cannot know anything
more. What, pray, do you think the solution is?" It never entered his
clever head that I could possibly know anything about it.
"I think you have been an unconscionable time in discovering what was
palpably obvious from the outset."
He frowned. He liked this reply no better than I intended. Then the
frown changed to a sneer, masked with a bantering smile, but all the
same unmistakable.
"It is a serious matter for our Government to fall under your censure,
Miss Gilmore."
"I don't think it is more stupid than other Governments," I retorted
with intentional flippancy. I was not in the least awed by his eminent
position, while he himself was, and found it difficult therefore to
understand me. This was as I wished.
"Americans are very shrewd, I know, especially American ladies, who are
also beautiful. But such matters as this----" and he waved his white
hand again loftily; as though the problem would have baffled the wisdom
of the world--any wisdom, indeed, but his.
Now this was just the opening I was seeking. I had only become
governess to his two girls in order to make an opportunity for myself.
I used the opening promptly.
"Will your Excellency send for your daughter, Charlotte?"
He started as if I had stuck a pin in him. If you wish to interest a
man, you must of course mystify him.
"For what purpose?"
"That you may see there is no collusion."
"I don't understand you," he replied. I knew that as clearly as I saw
he was now interested enough to wish me to do so. I let my fingers
dawdle among the chessmen during a pause intended to whet his
curiosity, and then replied:
"I wish you to ask her to bring you a sealed envelope which I gave her
six days ago, the day after the jewels disappeared."
"It is very unusual," he murmured, wrinkling his brows and pursing his
lips.
"I am perhaps, not quite a usual person," I admitted, with a shrug.
He sat thinking, and presently I saw he would humour me. His brows
straightened out, and his pursed lips relaxed into the indulgent smile
once more.
"You are a charming woman, Miss Gilmore, if a little unusual, as you
say;" and he rang the bell.
"You have not moved, I think," I reminded him; but he sat back, not
looking at the board and not speaking until his daughter came. I
understood this to signify that I was on my trial.
"Miss Gilmore gave you a sealed envelope some days ago, Charlotte," he
said to her. "She wishes you to bring it to me. Has it really any
connexion with this case?" he asked, as soon as she had left to fetch
it.
I laughed.
"How could it, your Excellency? What could a girl in my position, here
only a few weeks, possibly know about such a thing?"
As this was the thought obviously running in his own mind, he had no
difficulty in assenting to it politely.
"Then what does this mean?" he asked, with a little fretful frown of
inquisitiveness.
"I am only proving my self-diagnosis as a somewhat unusual person.
Will you move now?"
He bent forward and scanned the pieces; but his thoughts were not
following his eyes, and with an impatient gesture he leaned back again.
I continued to study the board as though the game were all in all to me.
"You are pleased to be mysterious, Miss Gilmore;" he said, his tone a
mingling of severity, sarcasm and irritation. I was to understand that
a man of his exalted importance was not to be trifled with. "I
appreciate greatly your valuable services, but I do not like mysteries."
I raised my eyes from the board as if reluctantly.
"I am unlike your Excellency in that. They have a distinct attraction
for me. This has." I indicated the mate problem with my hand, but my
eyes contradicted the gesture. He believed the eyes, and again moved
uneasily in his chair. "It is naturally an attractive problem. I have
moved, you know."
He was a very legible man for all his diplomatic experience; and the
little struggle between his sense of dignity and piqued curiosity was
quite amusing. But I was careful not to show my amusement. Nothing
more was said until the envelope had been brought and Charlotte sent
away again.
He toyed with it, trying to appear as if it were part of some silly
childish game to which he had been induced to condescend in order to
please me.
"What shall I do with this?"
"Suppose you open it?" I said, blandly.
He shrugged his shoulders, waved his white hand, lifted his eyebrows
and smiled, obviously excusing himself to himself for his participation
in anything so puerile; and then opened it slowly.
But the moment he read the contents his manner changed completely. His
clear-cut features set, his expression grew suddenly tense with
astonishment, his lips were pressed close together to check the
exclamation of surprise that rose to them; even his colour changed
slightly, and his eyes were like two steel flints for hardness as he
looked up from the paper and across the chessmen at me.
I enjoyed my moment of triumph.
"It is your Excellency's move," I said again, lightly. "It is a most
interesting position. This knight----"
He waved the game out of consideration impatiently.
"What does this mean?" he asked, almost sternly.
"Oh, that!" I said, with a note of disappointment, which I changed to
one of somewhat simpering stupidity. "I was trying my hand at adapting
the French proverb. I think I put it '_Cherchez le Comte Karl el la
Comtesse d'Artelle_,' didn't I?"
"Miss Gilmore!" he exclaimed, very sharply.
I made a carefully calculated pause and then replied, choosing my words
with deliberation: "It is the answer to your Excellency's question as
to my opinion of the solution. If you have followed my formula, you
have of course found the jewels. The Count was the thief."
"In God's name!" he cried, glancing round as though the very furniture
must not hear such a word so applied.
"It was so obvious," I observed, with a carelessness more affected than
real.
He sat in silence for some moments as he fingered the paper, and then
striking a match burnt it with great deliberation, watching it
jealously until every stroke of my writing was consumed.
"You say Charlotte has had this nearly a week?"
"The date was on it. I am always methodical," I replied, slowly. "I
meant to prove to you that I can read things."
His eyes were even harder than before and his face very stern as he
paused before replying with well-weighed significance:
"I fear you are too clever a young woman to have further charge of my
two daughters, Miss Gilmore. I will consider and speak to you later."
"I agree with you, of course. But why later? Why not now? My object
in coming here was not to be governess to your children, but to enter
the service of the Government. This is the evidence of my capacity;
and it is all part of my purpose. I am not a good teacher, I know; but
I can do better than teach."
He listened to me attentively, his white finger-tips pressed together,
and his lips pursed; and when I finished he frowned--not in anger but
in thought. Presently a slight smile, very slight and rather grim,
drew down the corners of his mouth. And then I knew that I had
matriculated as an agent of the Government.
"Shall we finish the game, your Excellency?"
"Which?" he asked laconically, a twinkle in the hard eyes.
"It is of course for your Excellency to decide."
"You are a good player, Miss Gilmore. Where did you learn?"
"I have always been fond of problems."
"And good at guessing?"
"It is not all guessing--at chess," I replied, meaningly. "One has to
see two or three moves ahead and to anticipate your opponent's moves."
A short laugh slipped out. "Let us play this out. You may have made a
miscalculation," he said, and bent over the board.
"Not in this game, your Excellency."
"You are very confident."
"Because I am sure of winning."
He grunted another laugh and after studying the position, made a move.
"I foresaw your Excellency's move. It is my chance. Check now, of
course, and mate, next move."
"I know when I am outplayed," he said, with a glance. "I resign. And
now we will talk. You play a good game and a bold one, Miss Gilmore,
but chess is not politics."
"True. Politics require less brains, the stakes are worth winning, and
men bar women from competing."
"It is rare to find girls of your age wishing to compete."
"I am twenty-three," I interjected.
"Still, only a girl: and a girl at your age is generally looking for a
lover instead of nursing ambitions."
"I have known men of your Excellency's age busy at the same sport,"
said I. "Besides, I may have been a girl," I added, demurely; taking
care to infuse the suggestion with sufficient sentiment.
"And now?" he asked, bluntly.
"I am still a girl, I hope--but with a difference."
"You are not thinking of making a confidant of an old widower like me,
are you?"
"No, I am merely laying before you my qualifications."
"You know there is no room for heart in political intrigue? Tell me,
then, plainly, what do you wish to do?"
"To lend my woman's wit to your Excellency's Government for a fair
recompense."
"What _could_ you do?"
There was a return to his former indulgent superiority in the question
which nettled me.
"I could use opportunities as your agents cannot."
"How? By other clever guesses?"
"It was no guess. I have seen the jewels in Madame d'Artelle's
possession."
He tried not to appear surprised, but the effort was a failure.
"I have been entertaining a somewhat dangerous young woman in my house,
it seems," he said.
"It was ridiculously easy, of course."
"Perhaps you will explain it to me."
"A conjuror does not usually give away his methods, your Excellency.
But I will tell this one. Feeling confident that Count Karl had stolen
the jewels, and that his object would only be to give them to the
Countess, I had only to gain access to her house to find them. I found
a pretext therefore, and went to her, and--but you can probably guess
the rest."
"Indeed, I cannot."
It was my turn now to indulge in a smile of superiority.
"I am surprised; but I will make it plainer. I succeeded in
interesting her so that she kept me in the house some hours. I was
able to amuse her; and when I had discovered where she kept her chief
treasures, the rest was easy."
"You looked for yourself?"
"You do me less than justice. I am not so crude and inartistic in my
methods. She showed them to me herself."
"Miss Gilmore!" Disbelief of the statement cried aloud in his
exclamation.
"Why not say outright that you find that impossible of credence? Yet
it is true. I mean that I led her to speak of matters which
necessitated her going to that hiding-place, and interested her until
she forgot that I had eyes in my head, so that, in searching for
something else, she let me see the jewels themselves."
"Could you get them back?" he asked, eagerly.
I drew myself up and answered very coldly.
"I have failed to make your Excellency understand me or my motives, I
fear. I could do so, of course, if I were also--a thief!"
"I beg your pardon, Miss Gilmore," he exclaimed quickly, adding with a
touch of malice. "But you so interested me that I forgot who you were."
"It was only an experiment on my part; and so far successful that I won
the Countess' confidence and she has pressed me to go to her."
"You didn't refer her to me for your credentials, I suppose?" he said,
his eyes lighting with sly enjoyment.
"She asked for no credentials."
"Do you mean that you talked her into wanting you so badly as to take
you into her house without knowing anything about you?"
"May I remind your Excellency that I was honoured by even your
confidence in giving me my present position without any credentials."
He threw up his hands.
"You have made me forget that in the excellent discretion with which
you have since justified my confidence. I have indeed done you less
than justice."
"The Countess thinks that, together, we should make a strong
combination."
"You must not go to her, Miss Gilmore--unless at least----"
He paused, but I had no difficulty in completing his sentence.
"That is my view, also--unless at least I come to an understanding with
you beforehand. It will help that understanding if I tell you that I
am in no way dependent upon my work for my living. I am an American,
as I have told you, but not a poor one; and my motive in all this has
no sort of connexion with money. As money is reckoned here, I am
already a sufficiently rich woman."
"You continue to surprise me. Yet you spoke of--of a recompense for
your services?"
"I am a volunteer--for the present. I shall no doubt seek a return
some time; but as yet, it will be enough for me to work for your
Government; to go my own way, to use my own methods, and to rely only
upon you where I may need the machinery at your disposal. My success
shall be my own. If I succeed, the benefits will be yours; if I fail,
you will be at liberty to disavow all connexion between us."
He sat thinking over these unusual terms so long that I had to dig in
the spur.
"The Countess d'Artelle is a more dangerous woman than you seem at
present to appreciate. She is the secret agent of her Government. She
has not told me that, or I should not tell it to you; but I know it.
Should I serve your Government or hers? The choice is open to me."
He drew a deep breath.
"I have half suspected it," he murmured; then bluntly: "You must not
serve hers."
"That is the decision I was sure you would make, General. We will take
it as final."
"You are a very remarkable young woman, Miss Gilmore."
"And now, a somewhat fatigued one. I will bid you good-night. I am no
longer your daughter's governess, but will remain until you have found
my successor."
"You will always be a welcome guest in my house," and he bade me
good-night with such new consideration as showed me I had impressed him
quite as deeply as I could have wished. Perhaps rather too deeply, I
thought afterwards, when I recalled his glances as we parted.