"Ah! my dear Hecq--you have now set me a very difficult task--very
difficult indeed!" I found myself saying a few weeks later, after I had
mastered, with a good deal of trouble, a formidable dossier which had
been laid before me by the astute chief of the French Secret Service,
now promoted, by the way, to be chief of the International Secret
Service Bureau of the Allies.
Though the time had been short since my return from Spain, much had
happened. At length "unity of command" in contra-espionage work had
been realised as an absolute essential for securing a definite mastery
over the incessant plottings of the Huns, and, with the cordial goodwill
of all, Armand Hecq--whose brilliant abilities had given him a
commanding position--had been unanimously chosen for the much coveted
post.
"I admit it is extremely difficult," said the short, grey-bearded, alert
little man, knocking the ash from his excellent cigar, leaning back in
his cane deck-chair, and regarding me with an amused smile. "It is so
difficult that I confess I do not see my way at all clearly. For that
reason I have put the matter before you."
"There can be no doubt about the seriousness of the affair," I said.
"The French Service have done very well so far, and so have our friends
in London. We are quite well aware that during the past few weeks there
has been an amazing recrudescence of German espionage, both here and in
England, and even Whitehall is seriously alarmed. There is good reason
for believing that working drawings of the new British trench-mortars
have, by some means, been smuggled over to Germany. How they got out is
a complete mystery, for the control at all the ports has been stricter
than ever. Yet van Ekker has managed to get through to Holland a
message from Berlin which leaves very little doubt as to the fact. It
is undeniably serious, for the new mortar is a wonderful production, and
I happen to know that it was intended to be one of the grand surprises
in the Allies' spring offensive."
Hecq grunted, and I paused. Then I went on saying:
"We have a pretty good idea of the traitor in the department concerned,
and he is now safely under lock and key. Unfortunately the mischief was
done before he was even suspected, and the closest inquiries have failed
to unearth any of his associates who would be regarded as in the
slightest degree doubtful. It looks very much like a case of a hitherto
thoroughly reliable man yielding to a sudden and overpowering
temptation, while the real culprit--the man who pulled the strings--
remains undiscovered. No doubt Count Wedell and his precious propaganda
department have a first-class man at work, and they have so cleverly
covered up the tracks that the method of their latest coup remains a
mystery. It is perfectly obvious that the subterranean work of Germany
is even now proceeding in France, Italy, and Great Britain."
"Exactly, _mon cher_ Sant. And you must take this particular matter in
hand at once, and try to discover at least one of the fingers of what
your good friends across the Channel call so appropriately `the Hidden
Hand.' For myself, I feel quite sure that at last, after much seeking,
we have alighted on the source of the whole affair, so far as England
and France are concerned."
Our conversation had taken place at Armand Hecq's house out at St
Germain, beyond Paris. I had come post-haste from Lausanne, where I had
been engaged with Poiry--an ex-agent of the Paris Surete--upon another
matter. An urgent telegram from Hecq had warned me that the new
business was most important, hence I had lost no time in answering his
summons.
It was a warm afternoon, and we were seated out on the terrace
overlooking the pretty garden, which was the hobby of the most
remarkable and resourceful secret agent in all Europe.
To outward seeming Armand Hecq was a prosperous Parisian financial
agent, whose offices in the Boulevard des Capucines, opposite the Grand
Hotel, were visited by all sorts of persons of both sexes. None,
excepting those "in the know," suspected that these handsome offices,
with the white-headed old _concierge_ wearing the ribbon of 1870, were
in reality no mere financial establishment, but the headquarters of the
international espionage of the Allies. None realised that the crowds of
"speculators," who flocked thither in the pursuit of ever-elusive
wealth, included among them dozens of men and women who day by day
carried their lives in their hands in their never-ending warfare with
the unscrupulous and resourceful agents of Germany. None dreamed that
to the busy staff finance was a mere side-line; that their real interest
was not the daily fluctuations of the Bourse, but the thread of Hun
intrigue which ran through all the crowded life of the gay city, and was
nowhere stronger than in the department of finance.
"Now, Sant," said Hecq abruptly, after we had sat silent for a few
minutes while I ran over in my mind the essential facts of the new and
tangled case. "You have seen the photographs and the _dossier_, and you
understand the position. What is your opinion?"
"There can be but one," I answered leisurely. "Before the war, Jules
Cauvin, of Issoire in Auvergne, was a struggling corn-merchant. He has
since, in some unaccountable way, blossomed out into a man of wealth,
and has purchased an important estate with money which has come from
some mysterious source. Constant payments appear to reach him from a
firm of motor-engineers somewhere in England. In his sudden prosperity
he has bought a villa at Mentone, where he lives during the winter with
his wife and family, and he is often seen at the tables at Monte Carlo.
Among those who have stayed with him at the Villa des Fleurs was the
Russian Colonel Miassoyedeff, who was recently hanged as a spy of
Germany. There can be only one conclusion from all this."
"Ah! my friend. I see you have mastered the essentials," said Hecq
approvingly. "Now Cauvin and all his friends are under the strictest
surveillance; the question is how we are to secure evidence to convict
him of the espionage he is undoubtedly concerned in. We can arrest him,
of course, at any moment; he has no chance whatever of getting away.
Every letter he sends or receives is opened and photographed, yet, up to
the present, he has been too clever for us. If he were put on trial for
espionage to-morrow, not even his friendship with Miassoyedeff would
prevent him from being acquitted. We have no evidence against him
whatever, beyond the fact of his sudden wealth, and that, even in these
times, is not enough." And Hecq looked at me with an appeal in those
soft, strange eyes of his. I could see that the case of Cauvin
presented itself to him as supremely important, and that it must be
solved if we were ever to grapple successfully with the mysterious,
deadly influence whose workings we could feel and trace all around us,
but the real wielder of which appeared constantly to slip through our
fingers.
"I quite understand you," I said, sipping the little glass of Cointreau
he had offered me. "There is only one thing to be done. We must find
that finger of the Hidden Hand in England."
"Exactly, my dear Sant," exclaimed my chief, with a quick gesture of
approval. "We seem to be losing ground day by day. Why? At all costs
the position must be retrieved. You will want Madame Soyez to help you.
Let me see; she is at present in England. I sent her across only a
week ago to make some inquiries. Excuse me a moment while I speak to
Guillet," and he left me to go to the telephone.
Monsieur Guillet was his private secretary, who controlled his
"financial office" in the Boulevard des Capucines.
A few minutes later he returned, saying: "Madame is to-day at the
Midland Grand Hotel in Manchester. Presuming that you wish to meet her,
I have told Guillet to telegraph, asking her, if possible, to meet you
to-morrow night in London."
"No," I said at once. "That won't do. We cannot begin to work in
England yet. I must learn a lot more about this interesting person
Cauvin, who has so mysteriously acquired a fortune. Then we will begin
to probe matters across the Channel. Recall Madame Gabrielle here and
we will set to work. But it will be extremely difficult. The
investigation of the Hidden Hand in England has always met with failure,
so far as the principals are concerned. We have caught one or two of
the minor tools, but the master-mind has always eluded us, although the
British Secret Service is most excellent."
"Ah, _mon cher_ Sant, there I agree most cordially with you. The world
little dreams of the astuteness and resourcefulness of our colleagues at
Whitehall. One day it will know--and it will be greatly surprised.
Very well, I will order Madame Gabrielle to come direct to Paris."
Again he rose, and during his absence I once more glanced at the
formidable dossier concerning the wealthy Jules Cauvin, who was so well
known in the gay night life of Paris, whose smart wife was one of the
leaders in the social world, and who had recently established a hospital
out at Neuilly, where his wife and daughter worked unceasingly on behalf
of the wounded.
According to one report, the suspected man was in the habit of
entertaining certain high officials of the State at his fine house close
to the Etoile, and he had several bosom friends in the Admiralty. Such
was the present position of a man who only five years ago was a
struggling corn-merchant in rural Auvergne.
I lit a cigarette and reflected. By the time Hecq had returned I had
hit upon the rough outlines of a plan.
"First of all," I said, "you must call off the surveillance on Cauvin.
I must have a free hand in the affair, and the Surete must not interfere
in any way. If Cauvin gains the slightest suspicion we shall certainly
fail. Secondly, I must have a good man to assist me. Aubert did
extremely well in the case of Marguerite Zell, the dancing woman who
came from The Hague; I will have him. I shall leave Paris this evening.
Tell Madame Gabrielle to come home and wait till I return, and to hold
herself in readiness with Aubert."
Hecq nodded his assent, but did not ask me a single question. That was
what I liked most about him; he never asked one how he intended to
proceed. His trust, when it was given, was complete; he expected
results, and did not bother about mere details. Yet, when his
assistance was asked at a difficult point, he was always completely at
the service of his employees. He knew I had no particular affection for
the Surete, because in one important case they had bungled, and brought
me to disaster which nearly cost me my life. So he merely shook hands
and wished me good luck.
Twenty-four hours later I arrived at the Hotel de la Poste, in Issoire,
a dull, remote little town in Auvergne, and next morning set about
making inquiries regarding Jules Cauvin. First of all, I looked up the
entry of his birth at the Prefecture, which showed that he was the son
of the village postman of Champeix, seven miles from Issoire. I found
out also that his father had been imprisoned for seven years for thefts
of letters.
It was necessary to make many inquiries without arousing suspicion,
therefore I was compelled to spend several days at my task. I made some
interesting discoveries, for naturally the entire neighbourhood was
familiar with Cauvin's rise to wealth, and he had been put under that
microscopic observation and discussion which is so marked a feature of
provincial life everywhere, but especially in France.
I chanced upon a retired butcher named Demetz, in whose debt Cauvin had
been to the extent of nearly two thousand francs. Demetz had been on
the point of suing for the money when, to his intense surprise, Cauvin
called one day with a bundle of thousand-franc notes in his hand, and
threw out three, saying gleefully: "The extra thousand is for interest,
my dear friend. I invented an improvement in automobile engines a year
ago and patented it. A big firm in England has taken up my invention,
and my fortune is made."
Naturally enough, the retired butcher had been keenly interested in
Cauvin's sudden wealth, and had tried to question him about it. But the
postman's son was too wily to be drawn. He declared that the invention
was a secret, that it would revolutionise the motor trade, and that the
English syndicate which had bought it meant to spring it upon the market
as a complete surprise.
I soon found out that the man Cauvin was not popular. True, he flung
his money about, and there were few local institutions which had not
benefited by his largesse. But there is no population in the world so
suspicious as the French provincial, and it was evident that the
ex-postman's son had entirely failed in his prosperity to win either the
affection or the confidence of those who had known him in his earlier
and humbler days.
Demetz voiced the prevailing suspicion. "Where does his money come
from, monsieur?" he asked me. "From a motor invention--bah! What does
Jules Cauvin know about motors? He had hardly ever been in one before
he grew so suddenly rich. There is something mysterious about it all."
But it was evident that even Demetz had not the least inkling of the
real truth, and, of course, I did not breathe a syllable of it to him.
The matter was of extreme urgency, and I did not allow the grass to grow
under my feet. I had promised Doris to spend a week with her in
Worcestershire, but this was impossible. I knew, however, that she had
long wished for a trip to Mentone, so I sent her a wire, asking her to
come with her mother and meet me there. A few hours after I got the
reply I wished for, and the following afternoon I alighted upon the long
platform at Mentone. Two days later I was joined at my hotel by Doris
and her mother.
In Mentone, of course, my objective was the Villa des Fleurs. I
particularly wanted to have a good look round the interior of that
interesting house. Cauvin, of course, was away, and the house was shut
up, but I learned that it was being looked after by an old woman, the
wife of the gardener, and accordingly I hired a _fiacre_ and, with Doris
as my companion, drove out to the Villa des Fleurs.
On the Cote d'Azur the weather was stifling. Driving up the white,
winding road of Castellar, we found the olives and aloes dry and dusty,
and the land parched and brown. The Riviera is not gay in the dog-days.
At last we arrived at the Villa, a great, recently built house of the
flamboyant, new art style, its green shutters closed, and the whole
place silent and deserted in the burning sun. Roses and geraniums ran
riot everywhere, but the gardens were kept spick and span, as became the
winter _pied-a-terre_ of a wealthy man.
I posed as an Englishman who wished to view the Villa, with the object
of becoming its tenant next winter, having heard from a friend of
Monsieur Cauvin that he might wish to let it. Doris, I assured the old
gardener, a white-bearded man in a big straw hat and blue apron, was my
sister. He took the bait readily enough, and handed me over to the care
of his wife, by whom we were conducted over the house.
The house was most luxuriously furnished, and it was evident that
popular rumours, for once, had not exaggerated Cauvin's wealth.
Everything was in splendid taste and bore the unmistakable _cachet_ of a
famous Paris firm of experts. Cauvin, evidently, was no fool; he had
committed none of the absurdities of the average _nouveau riche_, but
had wisely given experienced men _carte blanche_. The result was a
mingling of luxury and good taste which certainly could not have been
expected from the son of a village postman.