“By Jove! Walter! I’m glad to see you.” Rutile sprang to his feet and
hurried forward as Topham entered the office of the embassy. “How are
you, old man?” he rattled on. “I heard you were coming, but didn’t
expect you quite so soon. Must have had a quick trip!”
Topham shook hands, smilingly. No sign of distress on account of the
missing papers clouded his eyes.
“Pretty quick,” he answered. “Glad to get here; however.”
Rutile turned. “Let me present you to the ambassador,” he said. “Your
Excellency! This is Mr. Topham of the navy, an old friend of mine, en
route to Tokio via Brindisi and Suez.”
Topham started and shot a glance of surprise at Rutile. Then he turned
back to the ambassador, who smiled and put out his hand.
“I’m glad to see you, Mr. Topham,” he said, a little ponderously.
“Isn’t it er--rather unusual to go from Washington to Tokio by way of
Berlin?”
The ambassador’s tones were entirely casual, but Topham thought he
detected some veiled meaning in them, perhaps because he was thinking
of the secretary’s caution to say nothing to the ambassador about the
papers placed in his charge. “Well! yes! it is unusual,” he answered.
“You see the navy’s short of officers and has to make out as best it
can. They are going to make me earn my passage to Tokio by serving as
watch officer on the Nevada. She leaves Brindisi for Manila on Friday,
and I’m to join her, so as to let one of her present officers be
invalided home.”
“But even so, Berlin seems off your route.”
Topham laughed. “It is a little,” he assented. “But I had never been
here and I wanted to see old Rutile, and so I persuaded the personnel
bureau to make my orders read via Berlin. It isn’t much out of the way.”
“I see!” The ambassador rose. “I--er--thought at first that you might
have brought me some special instructions?” His voice had a slight
rising inflection at the end.
But Topham shook his head. “Nothing of the sort, I’m sorry to say,
Your Excellency,” he replied.
“No? It’s just as well. Special instructions are usually unpleasant.
I’ll be glad to see you at my house if your engagements will allow, Mr.
Topham.” He turned to the secretary. “Just send my mail in to me, will
you, Mr. Rutile?” he finished.
Rutile turned to a pile of mail that had evidently just been dumped on
the table. “Here are two letters for you right on top,” he remarked,
passing them over. “If I find any more, I’ll send them in.”
“Do!Mr. Topham, since you have come so far to see Mr. Rutile, I won’t
interfere with your chat with him any longer.”
The ambassador looked from one young man to the other and his eyes
twinkled; but he left the room with nothing more except a nod.
As soon as he was gone, Rutile turned to Topham. “Well! Let’s have it,
old man!” he exclaimed.
Topham did not answer at once. He had drawn near the table and was
staring at the pile of mail matter. “So this is how you get your mail,”
he remarked, with apparent irrelevance.
“That! Oh! that isn’t official mail! That’s mostly letters and papers
for tourists sent in care of the embassy. The official mail comes in a
private bag. But let’s have those instructions.”
Topham’s eyebrows went up! “What instructions?” he demanded.
“The instructions you brought me from the Secretary of State, of
course.”
“Oh! * * * How do you know I have any special instructions for you?”
“The department tipped it off by cable! Let’s have ’em.”
But Topham shook his head. “Hold on a minute!” he exclaimed. “I should
like to understand this game, if you are at liberty to explain. Why in
thunder is the Secretary of State sending you instructions by a navy
officer instead of by the regular channels, and why is he sending you
any instructions at all that he conceals from the ambassador?”
Rutile threw himself back in the chair. “Search me!” he replied
cheerfully. “‘These are the Lord’s doings; they are wonderful in our
sight!’ If I had to guess, though, I should say that the instructions
you bring treat of a secret service matter which has nothing to do
with ambassadorial duties--yet.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course not. But it’s like this! Ambassadors are usually highly
polished, highly educated, highly ornate somebodies who have the
money and the wish to put up a fine front. Their principal duties
are to cultivate people, give dinners, and generally jolly things
along. Besides, they come and go, and can’t be expected to know all
the ins and outs of the game. We secretaries are more permanent, and
we are expected to know it all--and to plan it. If we make a slip,
the ambassador disavows us, and we are recalled. We are denounced as
presumptuous underlings who have acted without authority--not worth
quarreling over. Do you understand now?”
Topham nodded. “Yes! I begin to understand,” he said.
“All right! Now let’s have the papers.”
But Topham shook his head. “I haven’t any papers for you, Rutile!” he
said soberly. “I did have, but--I haven’t now!”
Rutile stared at him. “Good Lord! Man! You haven’t lost them, have
you?” he cried.
Topham hesitated. “No!” he answered, at last. “I haven’t lost them.
But I became a little alarmed about their safety and so I put them into
an envelope and addressed them to John Smith in care of the embassy
here. I carried a dummy in my pocket. The purser said they would reach
here about as soon as I did, and unless I am mistaken they are in that
envelope close to your hand on the table there. Allow me!”
The navy officer reached over and picked up an envelope. He opened it
and took out a packet which he handed to Rutile.
“Take your instructions,” he said.
Rutile threw himself back in his chair. “Well! I’m d--d!” he observed.
“Very likely!”
“But--but why did you-- What happened to--”
“Nothing! Nothing at all! There were some slight incidents--nothing of
any importance.”
“Oh! Nothing of any importance. Humph!” Rutile’s tones were sarcastic;
but he understood that for some reason Topham did not wish to speak
frankly, and so he proceeded cautiously.
“Er--voyage quite pleasant, I suppose?” he questioned.
Topham laughed ruefully. “Oh! Yes,” he answered, slowly. “Yes! Very
pleasant. Delightful, in fact! But, confound it, old man! Do you know,
I was seasick? Think of it! Seasick! Why, I haven’t been seasick for
ten years--not since my maiden cruise in Academy days. But I got it
this time good and proper!”
“Ah!” Rutile dropped his eyes, and began playing with a paper weight.
“How long did it last?” he questioned, carefully.
“Couple of days! It caught me right after dinner the first night out.
I went really dizzy. Fortunately it was cloudy and there weren’t any
people on deck, and my shameful secret became known to few. A girl who
happened to be there offered me a chair and I lay in it till I could
get to my cabin.”
“Humph! It’s lucky you didn’t go to sleep in that chair--with these
papers in your pocket!”
“I did go to sleep. Had quite a--er--nap, I suspect. But the papers
weren’t in my pocket. The purser had them in his safe.”
“Oh! I see!” Rutile laughed shortly. “Of course your humiliating
experience spoiled any chance for a flirtation with the charming girl
who--she was charming, of course.”
“She was, emphatically!”
“What was her name?”
“Miss Elsa Ferreira!”
“What!”
“Miss Elsa Ferreira. Do you know her?”
“Do I? Well--But that can’t be all. Were there any more--er--incidents?”
“Well, yes!” Topham spoke carefully. “Yes. There was one other small
occurrence. I came up from Cuxhaven with her brother.”
“Ah! You were--alone--with him?”
“Only for a few minutes. Two other men insisted on butting into our
compartment. Ferreira got quite excited in his efforts to keep them
out, but they would come in. Of course, they had as much right as we
did. But Ferreira wouldn’t stand for it and actually came to blows with
them. In fact I was involved and--I got the worst of it, too!”
With a chuckle Rutile threw himself back in his chair. “Well! I will be
d--d!” he observed. “You don’t mean you had a regular fight, do you?”
Topham grinned. “Well! Not exactly. The intruders simply sat down on
Ferreira and me. We weren’t in it, really. Then at the next stop they
threw down their cards and left the train.”
“Their cards? What were their names?”
“I don’t know! Ferreira--by the way, he said he knew
you--Ferreira--er--lost them out of the window!” replied Topham,
guilelessly. “Later I discovered that somehow I had lost my dummy
package in the scuffle.”
“Oh! Oh!--And the lady? What became of her?”
“She stayed in Hamburg. You understand, old man, these things that I’ve
been telling you are mere incidents of travel, of no real consequence.
You do understand that, don’t you?”
Rutile choked. “Oh! yes! certainly,” he acceded. “Now, if you’ll excuse
me for a moment I’ll see just what these instructions are about.”
“All right!”
Rutile examined the carefully placed seals, made sure that they were
intact, and then broke them and drew out the papers inside. A moment
later he gave a low whistle.
“Say, old man?” he exclaimed. “It’s just as I thought. You came over
with--with--”
The sentence was never finished. While the secretary hesitated for a
word, the door of the room was flung open and a young man rushed in and
dropped into a chair.